Emil Bove’s ‘I’m Not A Henchman’ T-Shirt Has People Asking Questions At Judicial Confirmation Hearing; Above The Law, June 26, 2025

 Liz Dye  , Above The Law; Emil Bove’s ‘I’m Not A Henchman’ T-Shirt Has People Asking Questions At Judicial Confirmation Hearing

"Emil Bove, III began his career at the Southern District of New York, where he was by all accounts a competent prosecutor. His management style left something to be desired, however, and he was denied promotion for “abusive” behavior

(Opens in a new window) toward his subordinates...

Third Circuit, here he comes!

On Wednesday, June 25, Bove appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is considering his nomination to the Third Circuit.

He opened by insisting, “I am not anybody’s henchman, I am not an enforcer. I’m a lawyer from a small town, who never expected to be in an arena like this.”

That is horseshit, of course. No one gets to “an arena like this” without a healthy dose of ambition. Note that Bove’s aw shucks modesty didn’t extend to telling the White House that he’d be a more appropriate nominee the US District Court.

And although his tone during the hearing was measured, his willingness to twist the truth was on full display

Asked about the Adams case, Bove pointed to the order dismissing the charges(Opens in a new window) as proof that he’d behaved appropriately. In reality, the Justice Department’s refusal to prosecute left the court little choice. And Judge Dale Ho denied the DOJ’s request to dismiss without prejudice, because allowing the Trump administration to reap the benefits of a corrupt bargain would be “difficult to square with the words engraved above the front entrance of the United States Supreme Court: ‘Equal Justice Under Law.’”

Bove denied telling subordinates to defy a court order, but said he just plum couldn’t remember if he’d told them to give the bird to a federal judge.

Over and over he simply refused to answer questions based on spurious claims about the deliberative process privilege. But, he assured the senators, all was on the up and up, even if he couldn’t commit(Opens in a new window) to recusing from cases involving his former client Donald Trump.

And if any Republican senator might be tempted to vote no, he brought out the big guns. Alan Dershowitz, late of Harvard Law (and his marbles), sent a letter(Opens in a new window) to the Judiciary Committee gushing that “Mr. Bove’s superior character, demeanor and diligence are evident throughout his time as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, as well as in private practice.”"

(Opens in a new windowtoward his subordinates.

Mike Lee Draws Outrage for Posts Blaming Assassination on the Far Left; The New York Times, June 16, 2025

Annie Karni and Megan Mineiro , The New York Times; Mike Lee Draws Outrage for Posts Blaming Assassination on the Far Left

[Kip Currier: Sen. Mike Lee's social media posts, in the wake of the recent political assassinations and killings in Minnesota, show and tell us everything we need to know about his character and core values.]

[Excerpt]

"Scarcely 24 hours after a Democratic lawmaker in Minnesota was assassinated in her home, Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, posted a pair of politically charged messages mocking the attack.

“This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way,” Mr. Lee wrote on Sunday on his personal X account, a message accompanied by photographs of the suspect released by law enforcement officials.

An hour later, in a second post showing the suspect, Mr. Lee wrote: “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” in an apparent reference the Democratic governor of the state, Tim Walz.

By the afternoon, amid outraged responses to his postings, Mr. Lee issued a very different message on his official Senate account in which he hit all of the sober notes one would expect from an elected official reacting to a political assassination."

Hegseth stripping Harvey Milk's name off Navy ship is weak and insecure | Opinion; USA Today, June 4, 2025

Rex Huppke, USA TODAY ; Hegseth stripping Harvey Milk's name off Navy ship is weak and insecure | Opinion

"Hegseth's plan to scrub Harvey Milk's name from a ship is peak insecurity

The “warrior ethos,” Secretary Hegseth? Are you an insecure 12-year-old?

Nothing says indomitable warrior quite like, “I’m afraid of this boat’s name.”

A true warrior would be familiar with American history and would know that Milk served as a U.S. Navy operations officer on rescue submarines during the Korean War, then went on to become the first openly gay man elected to public office in California. He was serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors when he and the city’s mayor were assassinated in 1978.

Milk served in the Korean War and earned his place in history

A true warrior would recognize that U.S. service members throughout history have proudly served, fought and died for the rights of all Americans to speak and live freely.

A true warrior would be appalled to read the statement Milk’s nephew Stuart Milk, who chairs the Harvey Milk Foundation, had to release in response to Hegseth’s pathetic renaming plan, saying of the slain activist: “His legacy has stood as a proud and bright light for the men and women who serve in our nation's military – including those who have served on the USNS Harvey Milk – and a reminder that no barriers of race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, or physical infirmity will restrain their human spirit.

Hegseth apparently sees US Navy ship names as 'woke'

The New York Times reported that there are other ships named after civil rights leaders that might be renamed under Hegseth’s feeble leadership. The names include Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harriet Tubman and Cesar Chavez.

Make no mistake that behind these decisions is an administration limply fighting back against any incursion on the power of straight, White men, wholly unaware that people with real power don’t need to exert their will on others...

Hegseth and others in the Trump administration don't know true strength

But that’s not strength. It’s not a “warrior ethos.” Heck, it’s not even an ethos. It’s just a bunch of unconfident losers trying to push others down to make themselves feel tall.

If Harvey Milk’s name is scrubbed from a Navy ship, it won’t alter his legacy. His name, decades upon decades from now, will still echo in the pages of history, the hearts of students of civil rights and the mind of any soldier with a true warrior ethos.

Pete Hegseth's name, on the other hand, will prompt only one response: “Who’s that? Never heard of him.”"

Beyond ChatGPT: WVU researchers to study use and ethics of artificial intelligence across disciplines; WVU Today, January 22, 2025

WVU Today; Beyond ChatGPT: WVU researchers to study use and ethics of artificial intelligence across disciplines

"Two West Virginia University researchers have designed a curriculum to engage liberal arts faculty in discussions on the social, ethical and technical aspects of artificial intelligence and its role in classrooms.

Through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Erin Brock Carlson, assistant professor of English, and Scott Davidson, professor of philosophy, both at the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, have designed an interdisciplinary, cross-institutional program to facilitate conversations among faculty about the benefits and drawbacks of AI, how it functions and the need for human interpretation.

The award will fund a summer workshop in which Carlson and Davidson will offer AI trainings for humanities faculty and guide them through creation and development of courses with an AI component. The researchers will then assist as faculty offer those courses to students, assess progress and help with the implementation of the projects that develop.

The researchers said they hope to challenge the notion that artificial intelligence research falls into the domain of STEM fields. 

“The humanities gets overlooked and underappreciated so often,” Carlson said. “We are doing important, meaningful research, just like our colleagues in STEM and other fields. This is a chance to use a humanities lens to examine contemporary problems and developments like artificial intelligence and also to get conversations going between fields that oftentimes don’t talk to one another as much as we should.”

Co-directors Carlson and Davidson will be joined by a team of mentors and fellows — two from data science fields and two from the humanities perspective — that will serve and assist as resources in the interdisciplinary conversations. The seminar and summer workshops will support the creation or redesign of 10 courses. They plan to invite off-campus experts to help facilitate the workshops, work with the faculty and support their projects.

“It’s really about expanding capacity at the University and in the humanities to investigate the implications of AI or to actually use AI in humanities courses, whether it’s for writing, creating art or creating projects through the use of AI,” Davidson said. “There are a lot of different possibilities and directions that we hope these courses take. If we have 10 of them, it’s really going to have a big impact on humanities education here at the University.”

Carlson and Davidson acknowledge that attitudes about AI tend to be either extremely optimistic or extremely skeptical but that the reality is somewhere in the middle.

“AI is such a simplistic term to describe a whole suite of different technologies and developments that folks are dealing with every day, whether they know it or not,” Carlson said, noting that discussions could focus on personal, social and economic impacts of AI use, as well as how it affects character and intellectual values. 

Davidson was inspired to focus on AI when he found an erroneous, AI-generated summary of one of his own articles.

“It was totally wrong,” he said. “I didn’t say those things, and it made me think about how somebody might look me up and find that summary of my article and get this false impression of me. That really highlighted that we need to build an understanding in students of the need to inquire deeper and to understand that you have to be able to evaluate AI’s accuracy and its reliability.”

Carlson and Davidson said the conversations need to consider AI’s drawbacks, as well. Using AI consumes large amounts of water and electricity resulting in greenhouse emissions. Data centers produce electronic waste that can contain mercury and lead. 

They also intend to follow legal cases and precedents surrounding the use of AI.

“That’s another aspect of AI and the ways that it represents people,” Carlson said. “Because it has a very real, material impact on people in communities. It’s not just a super computer in a room. It’s a network that has a bunch of different implications for a bunch of different people, ranging from jobs to familial relationships. That’s the value of the humanities — to ask these tough questions because it’s increasingly difficult to avoid all of it.”

Conversations, as they expand, will need to keep up with the pace of AI’s rapidly developing landscape.  

“There’s going to be a lot of people involved in this,” she said. “We put together an amazing team. We want it to be an open, honest and ethical conversation that brings in other folks and opens up further conversations across the College and the University at large.”"

Biden eulogizes Carter with an emphasis on character; The Washington Post, January 9, 2025

Cleve R. Wootson Jr., The Washington Post; Biden eulogizes Carter with an emphasis on character

"“Character, I believe, is destiny. Destiny in our lives and, quite frankly, destiny in the life of our nation,” Biden said in remarks that began just before noon, using the word “character” nearly a dozen times in 10 minutes. “We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor and to stand up to what my dad said is the greatest sin of all: the abuse of power.”

Carter had personally asked Biden to deliver his eulogy, but Biden’s words seemed aimed at least in part at the current moment and President-elect Donald Trump’s style of politics, which he has derided as focused on self-absorption and fueling division for political gain.

Biden said anyone seeking to lead a good life would be wise to model themselves on Carter, who he said was motivated by “faith, hope and love.” He hailed the former president as a man who spent his life serving everyone from his neighbors in his small hometown of Plains, Georgia, to residents of poor countries around the world."

Biden says Jimmy Carter’s ‘enduring attribute’ was character.; The New York Times, January 9, 2025

Michael D. Shear, The New York Times; Biden says Jimmy Carter’s ‘enduring attribute’ was character.

 "Mr. Biden spent little time recounting Mr. Carter’s accomplishments, as had already been done by other speakers at the funeral. Instead, he focused on “Jimmy Carter’s enduring attribute: character, character, character.”

He said that character was the reason he endorsed Mr. Carter’s presidential campaign in the 1970s, well before many other Democratic politicians. He said it was Mr. Carter’s character that allowed him to survive in a world of powerful pressures.

“It is the story of a man who never let the ties of politics divert him from his mission to serve and shape the world,” he said. “The man had character.”"

“This is a bad dream:” Kamala Harris voters baffled by Trump’s win come to terms; The Mercury News, November 6, 2024

JULIA PRODIS SULEK , The Mercury News; “This is a bad dream:” Kamala Harris voters baffled by Trump’s win come to terms

"Harris’s supporters tried to make sense of the news that more than half the country voted for a convicted felon who inspired a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol after he refused to admit he lost the 2020 election, someone who was found liable for sexual abuse, and promised to seek revenge on his enemies — not to mention using vile language to describe the vice president and other antics...

The campaigns exposed deep divides between the candidates and polarized the nation.

“No matter who won this election, it’s clear that we’ve become two separate Americas, and neither America understands the other one or has much of an interest in understanding the other one,” said political analyst and USC professor Dan Schnur.

“That leaves California in the exact same place that conservatives in Texas and Florida were in four years ago. You either dig in and get even angrier and fight back even harder, or you try to understand why there’s people on the other side who don’t agree with you.”"

As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator; The New York Times, October 22, 2024

Michael S. Schmidt, The New York Times; As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator

"Few top officials spent more time behind closed doors in the White House with President Donald J. Trump than John F. Kelly, the former Marine general who was his longest-serving chief of staff.

With Election Day looming, Mr. Kelly — deeply bothered by Mr. Trump’s recent comments about employing the military against his domestic opponents — agreed to three on-the-record, recorded discussions with a reporter for The New York Times about the former president, providing some of his most wide-ranging comments yet about Mr. Trump’s fitness and character...

Here are excerpts from, and audio of, Mr. Kelly’s comments...

Trump told him that “Hitler did some good things.”

Mr. Kelly confirmed previous reports that on more than one occasion Mr. Trump spoke positively of Hitler.

“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” Mr. Kelly said Mr. Trump told him...

Kelly said Trump looked down on those who were disabled on the battlefield.

In response to a question about previous stories about Mr. Trump having disdain for disabled veterans, Mr. Kelly said Mr. Trump did not want to be seen in public with those who had lost limbs on the battlefield.

“Certainly his not wanting to be seen with amputees — amputees that lost their limbs in defense of this country fighting for every American, him included, to protect them, but didn’t want to be seen with them. That’s an interesting perspective for the commander in chief to have.”

“He would just say: ‘Look, it just doesn’t look good for me.’”

He said Trump called service members who were injured or killed “losers and suckers,” despite denials from Trump and some aides.

Confirming a statement he gave to CNN last year, Mr. Kelly said that on multiple occasions Mr. Trump told him that those Americans wounded, captured or killed in action were “losers and suckers.”

“The time in Paris was not the only time that he ever said it,” Mr. Kelly said, referring to reports that Mr. Trump told him that he did not want to visit a cemetery where American service members killed during World War I were buried...

Mr. Kelly had nothing good to say about Mr. Trump

Mr. Kelly was asked whether Mr. Trump had any empathy

“No,” Mr. Kelly said.""

AI SERMON SERIES #1: AI AND THE HUMAN IDENTITY–THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD; Epiphany Seattle, May 7, 2023

The Rev. Doyt L. Conn, Jr., Epiphany Seattle; AI SERMON SERIES #1: AI AND THE HUMAN IDENTITY–THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

Click here to watch the sermon

[Excerpt]

"Character will be the distinguishing trait for what it means to be human. It will be what makes us noble or ignoble, just or unjust, honest or liars. It is our character that will give truth meaning, and us the capacity to look each other in the eye as equal members in the caste of the Royal Priesthood.

The church’s role is as a gathering place and a training ground for Priestly Sovereigns, where we practice being human.  And toward that ends, it is important to recognize the ground upon which we stand. For us, it is within the balanced cadence of our Anglican tradition. We have historical precedence developed over the last 500 years for walking with equanimity on a line that runs through the complexity. It is why we are known as the people of the middle way, or to use a theological term: the via media-which is the theology of balance and moderation and equanimity. Think Queen Elizabeth(God rest her soul).

As Anglicans, we meet the latest headlines with a calm cadence, well aware that this new world of AI will reveal both good news and bad news. And so, when we read an article like the one I read the other day about a University of California San Diego School of Medicine study that found that 75% of the time patients reported that a chat bot’s response was superior in quality and empathy to human doctors…pause, don’t panic.

Remember the via media, that we are people of the middle way. And there will be good news: new medical treatments, and scientific breakthroughs, new efficiencies in manufacturing, and better worldwide food distribution. And there will be troubling news: Job losses, and theft, and fraud, and an Internet polluted with lies. Strikes will be more common, as we see with the Writers’ strike going on in Hollywood right now.

And amidst it all, we walk the middle way, understanding and practicing the true primacy of relationship, relationship with one another, with creation, and with God. + The cross is our sign because of who our God is, a relational God, Trinitarian, Father and Son and Holy Ghost . We are the Royal Priesthood, trained like Jedi as people who walk the earth; well balanced, with equanimity whether the world is run by AI or not."

Prevent An AI Disaster Like The One At McDonald’s By Serving Up Ethics; Forbes, July 1, 2024

 Bruce Weinstein, Ph.D., Forbes; Prevent An AI Disaster Like The One At McDonald’s By Serving Up Ethics

"Would you like some bacon with your ice cream? How about an order of 260 Chicken McNuggets? These are but a few of the menu mishaps that occurred after McDonald’s incorporated AI into its drive-through experience.

The comic results of this technological mishap are the stuff of late-night television shows, but the core issues are anything but funny. No company wants its promising initiatives to become fodder for comedians.

The best way for your company to prevent an AI-generated disasters like this one is to embed ethical considerations into every step of the process you use to take an idea to market.

Here are three guidelines for making sure your business doesn’t become a feature on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s “Meanwhile” segment."

Research suggests AI could help teach ethics; Phys.org, June 6, 2024

 Jessica Nelson, Phys.org ; Research suggests AI could help teach ethics

"Dr. Hyemin Han, an associate professor of educational psychology, compared responses to moral dilemmas from the popular Large Language Model ChatGPT with those of college students. He found that AI has emerging capabilities to simulate human moral decision-making.

In a paper recently published in the Journal of Moral Education, Han wrote that ChatGPT answered basic ethical dilemmas almost like the average college student would. When asked, it also provided a rationale comparable to the reasons a human would give: avoiding harm to others, following social norms, etc.

Han then provided the program with a new example of virtuous behavior that contradicted its previous conclusions and asked the question again. In one case, the program was asked what a person should do upon discovering an escaped prisoner. ChatGPT first replied that the person should call the police. However, after Han instructed it to consider Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," its answer changed to allow for the possibility of unjust incarceration...

Han's second paper, published recently in Ethics & Behavior, discusses the implications of artificial intelligence research for the fields of ethics and education. In particular, he focused on the way ChatGPT was able to form new, more nuanced conclusions after the use of a moral exemplar, or an example of good behavior in the form of a story.

Mainstream thought in educational psychology generally accepts that exemplars are useful in teaching character and ethics, though some have challenged the idea. Han says his work with ChatGPT shows that exemplars are not only effective but also necessary."

The coronavirus crisis is a moral test. Will we pass?; Deseret News, March 21, 2020

Jennifer Graham, Deseret News; The coronavirus crisis is a moral test. Will we pass?

The challenges facing Americans are revealing our individual and national character. 

"Pardon, America, your character is showing. 

Among the people pointing this out is New York writer Jon Katz, who has observed that the demands of social distancing are coming up against radical individualism and selfishness born of a society in which we “count our money, pay our bills, shrink into the digital world and forget how to talk to people face to face.”

“The coronavirus is a moral threat, and an ethical challenge, in that it asks each of us to be mindful of ourselves and others and to police ourselves for the good of all,” Katz recently wrote on his blog...

Our first order of ethical behavior right now social distancing, Faden said. Second is taking care of others, particularly those most at risk and those who live alone. Third, she said, is giving blood, if we are able. And fourth is being solicitous and appreciative of everyone we encounter, from health care workers to cashiers to people coming to collect our trash.

“Be especially appreciative, demonstrably so, to anyone in your life you encounter who is taking on risks to protect you,” she said."

Leadership In The Time Of COVID-19; Forbes, March 19, 2020

Mark Nevins, Forbes; Leadership In The Time Of COVID-19

"The reality of life post-COVID-19 has not fully sunk in yet, and its consequences for our businesses, organizations, economy, and society will play out over the rest of 2020 and beyond.  Right now, we really need sober, smart, values-driven, and focused leadership.  Remember the old adage, “Crisis does not build character, it reveals it.”...

There’s no “playbook” for leadership when the stakes are high, and there’s certainly no playbook for what to do in the face of a 21^st Century pandemic.  We are all facing threats on multiple fronts at once: to self, family, employees, customers, suppliers and business partners, governmental and financial systems, and potentially our social fabric.  Even the Dean of the Harvard Business School can only offer a few good insights for companies facing this new reality, but no silver-bullet solutions.

So, what should you do if you’re responsible for a team, organization, or company?  Following are a few suggestions. (Note: the paragraphs below include carefully chosen links to help you in pragmatic ways—please click through.)...

Your employees will remember for a long time how they were treated during this crisis. Nothing drives employee loyalty and engagement more than knowing “my boss cares about me as a human being.” As a leader you should treat this COVID-19 crisis as a defining moment for yourself and your organization. Step up and lead accordingly."

Olympic champion shares personal experience on the importance of ethics; NTVabc, March 5, 2019

Lauren Kummer, NTVabc; Olympic champion shares personal experience on the importance of ethics

"On Tuesday, it was Ethics Day at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Naber spoke to students on character and ethics in a way that's relevant to everyday life.

"I think it's important to talk about what's in the best common good. Not in what's in your best interest but what is in our best interest," said Naber.

Naber shared stories on his own, and one in particular that put him in a tough situation during the 1973 World Team Trials where ethics came into question.

"I won the race but I didn't touch the wall correctly. The official thought I should be disqualified. The meet referee wasn't sure and they let me decide. Did I intend to fight the call? I remembered I didn't touch the wall. I said "I deserve to be disqualified" and I was. For that, I lost the chance to win a gold medal at the world championships but I earned my own self-respect. Of all the decisions I made in my swimming and athletic career I think that might be the highlight," said Naber."

This sad, embarrassing wreck of a man; The Washington Post, July 17, 2018

George F. Will, The Washington Post; This sad, embarrassing wreck of a man

"Americans elected a president who — this is a safe surmise — knew that he had more to fear from making his tax returns public than from keeping them secret. The most innocent inference is that for decades he has depended on an American weakness, susceptibility to the tacky charisma of wealth, which would evaporate when his tax returns revealed that he has always lied about his wealth, too. A more ominous explanation might be that his redundantly demonstrated incompetence as a businessman tumbled him into unsavory financial dependencies on Russians. A still more sinister explanation might be that the Russians have something else, something worse, to keep him compliant.

The explanation is in doubt; what needs to be explained — his compliance — is not. Granted, Trump has a weak man’s banal fascination with strong men whose disdain for him is evidently unimaginable to him. And, yes, he only perfunctorily pretends to have priorities beyond personal aggrandizement. But just as astronomers inferred, from anomalies in the orbits of the planet Uranus, the existence of Neptune before actually seeing it, Mueller might infer, and then find, still-hidden sources of the behavior of this sad, embarrassing wreck of a man."

Comey book likens Trump to mafia boss 'untethered to truth'; The Guardian, April 12, 2018

Tom McCarthy and Martin Pengelly, The Guardian; Comey book likens Trump to mafia boss 'untethered to truth'

"The former FBI director James Comey denounces Donald Trump as “untethered to truth” and likens the president to a mafia boss, in an explosive new book set to bring fresh turmoil to the White House...

In an epilogue, Comey passes judgment on Trump’s character. Writing that “our country is paying a high price” for the 2016 election, he says: “This president is unethical, and untethered to the truth and institutional values. His leadership is transactional, ego driven, and about personal loyalty.”

The book, an instant bestseller, will be supported by a media blitz. In response, the Republican party has organized a Trumpian scheme to attack “Lyin’ Comey” – and has set up a rebuttal website."

EDITORIALLY SPEAKING: Ethics code should steer conduct; Muskogee Phoenix, August 9, 2017

Muskogee Phoenix Editorial Board; EDITORIALLY SPEAKING: Ethics code should steer conduct

"The document requires everyone to sign a confidentiality agreement before entering an executive session. Anyone who refuses to sign the agreement will not be allowed into the meeting.

We would hope that anyone who is elected to public office would have the integrity and character to understand that what happens in executive session must stay in executive session. That is, after all, the entire point of an executive session.

We would hope anyone elected to public office would not need a piece of paper to ensure ethical conduct."

LeBron may or may not be a better player than Jordan, but he's a better man; Guardian, June 1, 2017

Damon Young, Guardian; LeBron may or may not be a better player than Jordan, but he's a better man

"Anyway, while the debate about their games and their talents and their respective grades of greatness remains relevant, there’s no argument that the 32-year-old LeBron far surpasses both the 32-year-old Jordan and today’s 54-year-old Jordan in integrity and bravery. And not the contrived, SkipBaylian artificial measure of character that bases and assesses a man’s testicular fortitude on his LinkedIn profile and whether he possesses an arbitrary “clutch gene,” but real actual character."

Jared Kushner Considers Losing Democratic Friends “Exfoliation.” But What Kind of Exfoliation?; Slate, 11/23/16

L. V. Anderson, Slate; Jared Kushner Considers Losing Democratic Friends “Exfoliation.” But What Kind of Exfoliation? :

"Asked by Forbes’ Steven Bertoni about the friends who have cut ties with Kushner since he began advising the Trump campaign, Kushner sounded blasé. “I call it an exfoliation,” he replied. “Anyone who was willing to change a friendship or not do business because of who somebody supports in politics is not somebody who has a lot of character.”

Exfoliation is an apt choice of metaphor for Kushner, who was recently described by a journalist as having “an eerily flawless complexion.” Surely someone with such glowing skin has ample firsthand knowledge of removing dead surface cells to boost skin’s health and appearance. But Kushner’s metaphor raises more questions than it answers. If losing friends and associates who value equality, tolerance, and inclusion more than social climbing is akin to exfoliation, what kind of exfoliation is it?"

I’ve always voted Republican. Until now.; Washington Post, 8/17/16

Daniel Akerson, Washington Post; I’ve always voted Republican. Until now. :

"And I have always voted for Republicans for president. Not this year.

The compelling rationale behind this decision: leadership. A good leader must demonstrate such qualities as competence, integrity, empathy, character and temperament. Hillary Clinton has these essential qualities. Donald Trump does not.

Trump simply lacks the competence to serve as president of the United States...

Long ago, I learned an old Navy saying from a good friend and now-retired admiral: “Ship, shipmate, self.” This motto set the priorities for my life during my service. The civilian equivalent would be “country, fellow citizen, self.” As individuals and as a nation, we must aspire to serve the greater good. We must exhibit the empathy that places the greater good of the nation and its people above individual self-interest.

Unfortunately, Trump has appealed to the lowest common denominators in our society: prejudice, xenophobia and intolerance...

What kind of person equates the sacrifice of the loss of a child to that of creating jobs or making money?"