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ethics

Sunday 7th of December 2025

2020 Presidential election The subpoenaed House Member's willful failure to comply with a congressional subpoena reflects discredit on Congress. If left unpunished, such behavior undermines Congress's longstanding power to investigate in support of its lawmaking authority and suggests that Members of Congress may disregard legal obligations that apply to ordinary citizens. January 6 Commitee Report - Summary, referral of members Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Scott Perry and Andy Biggs to the House Ethics Committee for failure to comply with subpoenas © 2022 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say As someone who's run for office five times, if the devil called me and said he wanted to set up a meeting to give me opposition research on my opponent, I'd be on the first trolley to Hell to get it. And any politician who tells you otherwise is a bald-faced liar. Jeanine Pirro, former judge and district attorney and Fox News' Justice with Judge Jeanine host, defending Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with emissaries of the Russian government even though he knew it wanted to help Trump win, and she knows it's illegal for foreigners to contribute, donate or spend funds on any election in the United States © 2017 Kwiple.com
Democracy If we do not as Americans confront the crisis of ethics and integrity in our society and among our leaders in both the public and private sector – and regrettably at times  even the nonprofit sector – then American democracy as we know it is entering its twilight years. Rex Tillerson, VMI commencement address, May 16, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Ethics The capitalist and consumerist ethics are two sides of the same coin, a merger of two commandments. The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’ Uyval Noah Harari, Sapiens © 2016 Kwiple.com
Ethics If it is within our power to prevent something very bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything morally significant, we ought, morally, to do it. An application of this principle would be as follows: if I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. Peter Singer, “Famine, Affluence and Morality” © 2017 Kwiple.com
Ethics It will come to nothing because there is nothing. Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu, 2017, on the latest corruption probe into his and his family's receipt of gifts from businessmen © 2017 Kwiple.com
Ethics Someone with an ethics of responsibility feels no right to foist the (predictable) consequences of his own actions onto others — he will say these consequenes are part and parcel of the actions themselves. Whereas under an ethics of personal conviction, one feels “responsible” for nothing but preserving the flame of pure conviction — for example, of protest against the injustice of the social order. … your actions are meant to have only exemplary value. Max Weber, “The Politician's Work” in Charisma and Disenchantment, translated by Damion Searls © 2020 Kwiple.com
Ethics There are a lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent? Donald Trump's so-what-so-do-we reply to Bill O'Reilly's statement that Vladimir Putin is a killer © 2017 Kwiple.com
Ethics We need to be clear that all ethically oriented action is guided by one of two  fundamentally different, irredeemably opposed maxims: either an “ethics of personal conviction” or an “ethics of responsibility.” … there is a deep chasm between acting according to normative demands [acting rightly, leaving the rest to God] … and … acting in a way that takes account of, and takes responsibility for, the (forseeable) consequences of one's actions. Max Weber, “The Politician's Work” in Charisma and Disenchantment, translated by Damion Searls © 2020 Kwiple.com
Ethics The time has come for all good men to rise above principle. attributed to Huey Long  © 2021 Kwiple.com
Ethics We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel, Nobel acceptance speech, 1986 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Not everyone who voted for Trump is a liar and a racist and a sexist, but everyone who did is someone who wanted one in the White House  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Require Internet researchers using public data, including data from third parties, to have their research reviewed by an institutional review board or to obtain informed consent, as is required for research involving human subjects © 2017 Kwiple.com
Nukes What, for example, might chemical or biological weapons by now be capable of had they and their delivery systems received the same investment of resources, across sixty years and more, as has been devoted to nuclear armouries? From this standpoint the advent of nuclear weapons may have been no more than the particular form first taken—perhaps to macabre advantage, in that its savage abruptness made the reality unmistakable— by an evolution that was anyway inexorable. The issues for strategy and statesmanship, and for ethics and law, need therefore to be recognized as not only novel, but also broad and basic. Michael Quinlan, 2009 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Politics What Trump has done is take this human impulse toward cruelty, and elevate it to a political virtue. Adam Serwer © 2021 Kwiple.com
Poverty Our obligation to the poor is not just one of providing assistance to strangers but one of compensation for harms that we have caused and are still causing them. Peter Singer, “What Should a Billionaire Give – And What Should You?” © 2017 Kwiple.com
Presidency The president of the United States, on the other hand, is restrained first and foremost by his own ethics and public spirit. What happens if somebody comes to the high office lacking those qualities? David Frum comparing American presidents to British prime ministers, who can be quickly removed from office if they lose Parliament's confidence © 2018 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Independent ethics watchdogs? We don't need no stinkin' watchdogs! © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Interests trump values © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say  Letting hunters kill hibernating bears is change we believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Preventing investigation or disclosure of exemptions from ethics rules granted to lobbyists and administration officials is change we believe in  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Selfie I can't afford your Harvard ethics. Roy Cohn, to a lawyer in his firm who refused to sign a false affidavit © 2018 Kwiple.com
Selfie  I don't want to know what the law is, I want to know who the judge is. Roy Cohn © 2018 Kwiple.com
Selfie What did I do wrong?  Nothing. I behaved unethically, for ethical reasons. Adnan Khashoggi © 2018 Kwiple.com
Selfie Whenever I’m at the airport, I like to do a little shopping at the Free Store. The Free Store is any establishment that  leaves its permanently price-gouged wares unsecured on shelves unattended by underpaid and overharried employees. I stroll in, select my items, then suddenly “receive a phone call” that “my flight is almost done boarding.” I’ve known people who get a rush from the act of stealing. Not me. What I love is having and using things I didn’t pay for. Thomas Morton, “writer, TV host and frequent flier” © 2023 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say Donald Trump would never lie under oath © 2017 Kwiple.com
Snapshot This president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values.  Donald Trump portrayed by James Comey © 2018 Kwiple.com
State of the union  Imagine a Trump nominee dropping out because they didn't pay taxes on their car and driver. A senior advisor to Hillary Clinton referring to Tom Daschle, Obama's nominee as secretary of Health and Human Services, who withdrew from consideration when it was revealed he failed to pay taxes on chauffeur services provided by a former employer © 2016 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest I don’t do things wrong. I do things right. I’m a legitimate person.  Donald Trump, echoing mob bosses in films and real life --> © 2023 Kwiple.com
Tech bros Schools Teach M.B.A.s Perils of ‘Bro’ Ethos  headline, New York Times print edition, December 26, 2017 --> © 2018 Kwiple.com
Tech bros say Fake it ’til you make it. Adage/ethos © 2023 Kwiple.com
Trumpism An upside-down flag, adopted by Trump supporters contesting the Biden victory, flew over the justice’s front lawn as the Supreme Court was considering an election case. … Judicial experts said in interviews that  the flag was a clear violation of ethics rules, which seek to avoid even the appearance of bias, and could sow doubt about Justice Alito’s impartiality in cases related to the election and the Capitol riot. New York Times, May 16, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Trumpism He [Ryan Zinke] had so many scandals that the White House officials told him he had until the end of the year to leave or be fired. That is impressive. Getting fired for ethics violations in the Trump administration is like being fired from the Rockettes for kicking. Stephen Colbert, The Late Show, December 17, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
 
Trumpists say We did not send him there to vote his conscience. We did not send him there to do the right thing  or whatever he said he was doing. We sent him there to represent us. Dave Ball, Washington County, PA, GOP Chairman, giving the finger to Sen. Pat Toomey for voting to impeach Trump the seocnd time around © 2021 Kwiple.com