Tag: News

The Lessons of this Administration

On By southwerkIn business ethics

The environment both natural and artificial shapes us.

I write about business ethics and I am deeply concerned about our current students in colleges and universities across the United States. Right now they are witnessing the highest and most powerful people in the United States government behaving in often illegal and continuously unethical ways. I am pointing specifically at the Cabinet members of the current administration although they are not the only ones.

They were selected on the basis of the most craven, servile loyalty and very often without any actual qualifications for their positions. And we see often on a daily basis, that to keep these jobs they must over and over again express their fealty to the current leadership. It is a degrading spectacle. Humans were meant to walk upright like free men and women not like some kind of whipped dog.

So, the current students here in this country witness a group of people getting ahead by sacrificing their honor, their self-respect, and abdicating their obedience and oath to the Constitution and laws of the United States. These people appear on television. They get good salaries and excellent benefits. There is an implication of after office service in think tanks and foundations at even more money. (However, the future of those from this openly corrupt administration is in some doubt.) Their lives are clear evidence that giving up your principles and abject loyalty to the most monstrous of individuals can be a successful strategy, if money and position are your only goals.

We do not live purely for money and position. I believe that is a truth. However, when I was teaching my students often told me that would seek a high paying position and do that job for twenty some years and then retire and live the life they wanted. I tried to explain to them that twenty years at a degrading and morally corrupt job would change them permanently, not to mention that a long life is not something that can be depended on. I am not sure they listened. After all, the lure of the opposite sex, nice cars, social position and economic security are very persuasive.

Explaining that a life you can look back on with pride is the only one worth living is difficult when your students are so young and want so many things so badly. And that is why we who teach are under a special and vital responsibility to point out the flaws in the “success at any personal cost” model.

We must be inspirational leaders not just teachers. We will have failed in a substantial and historically significant way if the current generation learns as a life lesson that servility and dishonor are proven paths to success. How will we be able to enjoy our retirements and our latter years when we see our students entering middle age in jobs they hate and despise because we were unable to communicate the important of moral and socially responsible conduct? And what of our nation? Can you imagine an entire generation admiring the antics of Pete Hegseth or Pam Bondi or any other of the cast of this ongoing federal reality show, a form of Wrestlemania writ large across our civic landscape?

If there was a time in your life to stand up for the values of the United States of America, this is it.

If you value your students’ futures, you must act to influence them to act in the interests of their nation, their posterity and their honor.

If not now, then when?

There is no convenient time to take a stand against evil.

Act now.

Your students and your nation are worth fighting for.

James Alan Pilant

Extortion as Policy

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Business ethics in the United States is taking some hard hits right now. In the last few days, one of the hardest hits that ethics in business has taken has come from what many people thought was a great university. They were mistaken.

Columbia University having agreed to a 200 million dollar payout has become the model for more Mafia style shakedowns of higher education in the United States.

Like Al Capone in Chicago, once you have one business paying protection you just roll up the rest of the block. So it is for American higher education. Columbia is the first in the dominoes.

Here – read the article about how Columbia will be the model.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-expects-other-schools-pay-164519393.html

“The deal didn’t just include a payout. Columbia also agreed to the appointment of an independent monitor who will determine if the school is abiding by the agreement, which includes provisions related to admissions, faculty hiring, and antisemitism on campus.”

Oh and look!! With an independent monitor, the shakedowns can continue indefinitely! You can bet real, hard money that a parade of demands for more money and power will come on a regular basis because once you’ve shown moral cowardice and the absence of any backbone, the extortion never, ever stops.

Perhaps, as in Florida, cronies of our “government” will find themselves well paying positions with lots of free perks in the now morally challenged atmosphere of the cowering leadership of a once great university.

The spectacle of a great university folding like a gambler with a busted flush sounds like a story from a bad novel. Who would have thought that a great independent bastion of thought would be kneeling before the great orange Cheeto?

This is a blog on business ethics so let us do our moral analysis!!

When your research grants are stopped on spurious grounds and you are given a list of nonsensical loony demands including giving up your independence and ability to do things like choose your own faculty, you should:

A. Deploy your lawyers and summon support from alumni to fight this assault.

B. Seek political support seeking input from your stakeholders while taking a principled stand for the political independence of a major university.

C. Ally with other universities like Harvard and demand fair treatment and justice.

D. Pay 200 million dollars and give into every demand the administration makes.

My analysis would be that A, B and C are all viable paths of social responsibility and justice seeking. They did D, the path of cowardice and compliance. That was wrong.

The moral bankruptcy of American businesses faced with threats from the administration offers clear parallels to the end of the Wiemar Republic and the end of democracy in that country. This is a national tragedy with dramatic implications.

Since, I have taught business ethics, I must find that Columbia has erred on the side of wrong doing and moral failure.

They have just sacrificed not just two hundred million dollars but their moral reputation and their sacred honor.

They will not be getting them back.

And their failure makes it easier for this evil administration to shake down other schools.

It will never be the same institution that it once was and may safely be discarded as having any principles besides keeping federal funding flowing at all costs.

My long term prediction is as follows. They will find in the long term that they will lose the money as well. This isn’t a just one battle, the long term goal is annihilation. As a defender of civilization and thought, Columbia is to be destroyed. And that is what is going to happen unless braver people with actual spines come to their rescue. A rescue I might add, they in no way deserve.

James Alan Pilant

    “Pure Cowardice”

    On By southwerkIn business ethics

    This is what David Letterman had to say about the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

    While the network and its owners claim that the cancellation was purely motivated by financial decision making, one would have to be clueless, thoughtless and endlessly naive to accept that as a fact.

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/david-letterman-reacts-cbs-cancels-late-show-stephen-colbert_n_68842f5ee4b02a19bf1f8bde

    (Direct Quote form the link above.)

    “I think one day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this are going to be embarrassed because this is gutless,” he told former “Late Show” producers Barbara Gaines and Mary Barclay in a Zoom chat uploaded to his YouTube page.

    From the quote above one gets the impression that Letterman believes that there will be a future without the stain of the current administration upon us.

    It is to be hoped that this current regime’s catalogue of horrors will some day end but that is not at this time clear. We are faced with the possibility of these wicked monied interests and their debauched and greedy lickspittles may have permanently impaired our democracy and perverted our future into a Putin like totalitarian regime.

    Should democracy survive we will have to come to terms with the cowardice of CBS and many other businesses who gave up any shred of decency to serve the regime. But above all, we must turn our attention to the six Justices of the Supreme Court who during this time of crisis have served as the President’s abject servants in disregard of their oaths, their duty and their status as citizens of the United States. Their decisions opened the pathway to the end of our democracy and if it is saved it will be in spite of these six. They must be dealt with – impeached or the court packed — but these proto-fascist, pseudo judicial decisions must end. We must have actual judges who follow the law.

    I have been away from this my web site, Pilant’s Business Ethics, for a long time. I retired from teaching and only wished to sit quietly, read my books and maybe write a mystery novel or even a Western. At one time, I had around seventy thousand followers. Right now there are a little more than two hundred who subscribe. It has been a long time.

    But I cannot be silent. A horrifying evil infests our nation and while my voice may be small and ineffectual, it is still my voice and I am American – and I have a duty to speak and speak as loudly as I can against the current regime.

    And so, I’m back. Daily posting and much outrage. May God bless us all.

    James Alan Pilant

    What Can One Person Do During this Governing Crisis? Part 3.

    On By southwerkIn business ethics

    If you are a Democrat.

    I would like to write something eloquent and persuasive for those who are Republicans and opposed to the current regime. Alas, I don’t think I have a clear or convincing set of views about that party and its members. I apologize.

    I registered as a Democrat at 20 and have worked in a number of campaigns and have a great deal of experience. So, what can I say?

    We are in a national crisis and most of the current leadership of the Democratic Party is useless. I am delighted to report that there are a small number of Democrats who are out there right now putting themselves on the line to fight to save democracy. It is very sad that there are so few.

    When I did my research for this essay, I looked up the word, chicken, in its use as a synonym for a fleeing coward. There were around twenty-five words they said were similar and I really liked the word, “poltroon.” I think it gives the right sense as someone who you would expect to fight but instead runs away.

    I would implore you as a good American citizen and patriot not to give one thin dime to anybody in the party who is not actively opposing what is happening in Washington right now. What do I mean by active opposition? I mean appearing in town halls, issuing press releases, doing podcasts, television interviews and showing up at demonstrations. Actions are what we want and we want them now.

    I was looking at the news today and was surprised to see an article wondering if the Democrats should help keep the government funded apparently because the Republicans don’t have the votes and it would be a nice thing to do. This is the time to be an opposition party. This is the time to fight. This is the time to make your power felt. And above all, this is the time to stop what the current regime is doing.

    Cooperating with would be dictators and crazy people is wrong and evil. And right now, the Democrats in Congress are worried about looking bad. Really?? The Constitution is being hollowed out, disregarded and destroyed and they’re worried about their reputation instead of their duty and their place in history.

    As citizens we must act to reinforce the warriors and dedicated patriots of the Democratic Party. We absolutely must disregard the fund-raising letters and e-mails of the current leadership who are sitting at home doing nothing while asking for money. These do-nothing Democrats are completely useless. We are in danger of losing our democracy and our sacred rights and all they see is an opportunity for fundraising. Is there anything more cowardly and pathetic?

    This is the time for a new leadership to emerge. We must find new Democrats who are willing to live and work as patriots.

    And that is why I’m talking to you, those of us determined to resist. Probably, it has never occurred to you to seek elective office or even to participate in a precinct meeting. But these are not normal times. In American history, there have been movements like the Abolitionists, the Suffragettes, the Progressives and New Dealers that propelled average Americans into action and, thus, leadership.

    This crisis is quite likely the worst in American History. We must take action to preserve our nation’s legacy of democracy, the people’s rule.

    I know I am asking a lot. Running for office is a vale of suffering. A pathway of indignities and cruelty. The people on the other side have no compunction about lies, sabotage and violence. It will be dangerous.

    You must be very courageous, very brave and very committed. But if you have that steel in your backbone, this is the time.

    I believe firmly that that most of the current crop of Democrats are on their way out. They will avoid conflict, compromise their values and surrender if pushed enough. We in the party have no further use for these people. The future of the nation is at stake.

    What should you stand for? Once we have achieved our first and primary goal of stopping the immediate destruction of this nation’s government, we can think of the future. Once we have won, I recommend Franklin Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” and Lyndon Johnson’s “The Great Society.” There are plenty of great ideas and American values encapsulated in those two sets of ideas.

    The current think tank focused party must cease to exist and instead be replaced by a genuine people’s party that will fight for the poor and middle class.

    We must march together to preserve American Freedoms and American Values. It is our duty and our privilege.

    We must act now.

    (Part 4 follows in a few days.)

    What Can One Person Do During this Governing Crisis? Part 2.

    On By southwerkIn business ethics

    You’ve made the decision to fight, to not take what is happening in Washington in silence.

    And so we come to the second part of the equation, Politics.

    The Politics.

    Politics as a word is immediately unsettling and disturbing. And it should be. We have a system of election infested with dark money, secret organizations and every kind of conspiracy theory nutjob and idealogue imaginable.

    And you say, “James, you want me to wade into that cesspool?”

    “Yes, I do.”

    I understand. I, myself, would rather curl up with a good book or get busy writing an essay about the golden age of television. But when faced with a national crisis, you can choose to act or decide that you are powerless and helpless. I want you to act in defense of democracy. I want you to embrace your role as citizens and activists. It won’t be easy and it won’t be nice.

    What we must have is action against the current regime. What we have from the Republicans is public praise and private concern. They are not going to be very useful in the fight. What we have from the Democrats is some action on the part of some Democrats. Some Democrats in the Senate, in the House, some Governors and a few others. It is easy to look at the news and see who these people are. Those willing to fight have identified themselves. Most elected Democrats are sitting on the fence waiting to see how events break. I have no kind words for them just pure contempt. Now is the time to fight and those who are waiting to see what happens are cowards and fools.

    It is vital that action take place now. We can’t wait for the mid-terms. In two years, the power grab may be impossible to reverse.

    So, we have to act now and in the awful terrain of politics.

    RULE 1. The greater your numbers, the better. I was watching some clips from CPAC today and I realized that these fools and losers are only powerful because of billionaire money and the fact that they organize. If groups of the stupid can be important, how much more we, patriots and citizens, be effective. We stand high over these people just as the righteous throughout history have stood above the greedy and the foolish.

    Find allies. Find friends. Find leaders you can trust, not just individuals wearing a label that says Democrat but people whose hearts and souls are devoted to the causes of alleviating human suffering, defending the weak and the poor and above all fighting for our American democracy.

    These next two years will be the acid test of leadership in America. Whether Republican or Democrat, the test is simple. Is this individual willing to stand up daily, hourly – truly committed to defending democracy against this savage takeover? Fence sitters are as much traitors to the cause as any member of this regime’s cabinet. “We shall know them by their works” must be our rule. It doesn’t matter what they say in the fund-raising letters or their happy e-mails. What have they done? Have they spoken out? Where are the press releases, the speeches of defiance, the public announcement that are committed to the cause?

    Once committed you must act. Send e-mails, text messages, letters, to your representatives. Let them know how you feel. Cultivate a friendly supportive base of friends on social media.

    If possible, attend public meetings, political party precinct meetings and any other public meeting where the continuing crisis is going to be discussed or you want to bring it up.

    Set up a network of publications you can trust. Write up a list of positive contacts. When you go to a meeting, get names and addresses, suggest exchanging e-mails – You are building a coalition of fellow patriots. Don’t be shy! The nation is at stake.

    (I’ll be writing a third essay about what to do in the next few days. Thank you.

    https://southwerk.com/

    The Cultivation of Rage

    On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

    The Cultivation of Rage (1/11/2015)

    Currently, there is a tragedy unfolding in California. Fires are burning and people are dying. In past times in the United States, the nation would have pulled together united in efforts to send aid and comfort to the afflicted.

    We don’t live in that kind of nation anymore.

    The President Elect, a convicted Felon, with an incredible record of spreading lies and misinformation has explained that the disaster is all due to Gavin Newsom, the Governor or California not signing the “water restoration declaration.” And since he didn’t sign that it is all his fault that people are dying and homes are burning. There is a problem with this claim. There is no such thing as a “water restoration declaration.”

    So, where does this nonsense come from? How does a public figure make a totally made-up claim and expect not only to get away with it but politically benefit from it?

    First, the right-wing playbook very directly indicates that Attack, Attack and Attack is always the basic strategy for political success. And while there is some reliance on Mein Kampf’s assertation that a lie repeated often enough becomes a believed truth, the more modern technique is the firehose method where you simply blanket the media with lies making a rational or intelligent response all but impossible.  

    Second, there is a huge alternative media which will without any fact checking whatever repeat this nonsense, these lies, this misinformation. That anyone would willingly spread lies is morally and ethically vile but popular in some political circles. It is also effective. Right now there a millions of people in the United States, shaking with rage, consumed with hatred for this Democratic Governor who is responsible for so many deaths and so much destruction because he failed to sign a document that doesn’t and has never existed.

    And that is the point, hatred, discord, and high emotional content. This pent-up rage produces votes, contributions, campaign workers and the fervor of that that hate frightens and discourages the opposition. People filled with hatred express their vitriol on the internet, in public and in their lives.

    This cultivation of the angry never stops. Every single day, every hour, every minute, there is a new or revived charge, claim or fabrication implying evil and wickedness on the part of those they hate. The barrage never stops. It rains and rains without pause.

    And that is why Trump made up an easily disproved lie. Lie or not, it will still be effective. In fact, we can expect that his lies and nonsense will be continually rewarded. Marketed through the alternative media as truth and supported by his unquestioning, utterly gullible followers they will function as valuable weapons in their continued to question and diminish the values of honor, decency and truth.

    This is the nation where we live now. A place where every sort of aid and comfort should be sent to California, and instead the opportunity for attack is being fully cultivated for political advantage.

    Honesty, decency and character are important factors in a public servant or indeed in any human being but those factors don’t figure in a media landscape of disgusting, immoral and reckless lies.

    The OceanGate Disaster

    On By southwerkIn business ethics2 Comments

    The Oceangate Disaster

    It probably would have been timelier to write about this during the hearings which I followed with great curiosity. It is a great thing about this country that we have open hearing following carefully designed and historic procedures to seek the truth. And we found out a great deal.

    I have struggled with how to approach and think about this tragedy.

    One of the first things I realized was that I had seen this kind of tragedy before. It was Lord Thomson and the airship R101. Lord Thomson didn’t know very much about airships and it showed. When the highly experimental airship had problems he ordered very much in a “damn the torpedoes” way that the trip to India should proceed. He and 47 others died. They made it to Northern France somewhat short of India.

    The suicidal hubris was the same. There was the same disregard for unpleasant facts and a similar desire to get this project going.

    (There is also a good Wikipedia article about inventers killed by their own inventions – a list to which Stockton Rush’s name is now added.)

    Several things about the disaster are obvious.

    OceanGate had a flawed business plan. They wanted companies and nations to buy and use their vessels to explore the undersea world at a time when Remote Ocean Vehicles (ROV’s) were taking off in terms of technology and usefulness. During the period of Oceangate’s existence, the number and profitability of the ROV’s soared. Faced with this kind of competition, there was little possibility of any government or business contracts. That left only tourism. (It is truly ironic that the wreckage was found by an ROV.)

    Stockton Rush was in over his head. He was well qualified for virtually any aerospace endeavor. His achievements are noteworthy. But instead of his field of training he launched into the undersea world where he had neither training or experience.

    Stockton Rush was a victim of hubris. He could not conceive that he might be mistaken. The record of this tragedy has a constant theme of him rejecting criticism and ignoring unwelcome advice or facts even from his friends.  People inside the company that dared voice criticism were fired, silenced and sued.

    Let me add this story which I found significant. There was a question asking him about risk and he went into a discussion of how much he loved his family and would not risk any chance of not returning to them. Imagine me as head of the American space program, someone asks me if it is dangerous and I explain how much I love my cat! You asks for facts and you get a gaslighting diversion into a fantasy world where love of family somehow equates to safety. I’m sure if you go through the list of inventers killed by their own inventions that every single one of them loved their families probably their friends and pets as well – and yet they are still very much dead.

    The submersible itself is less an engineering marvel and more the kind of garage construction one would expect from one of those golden age science fiction films where a scientist with a beautiful daughter builds a rocket to the moon. Mind you, it didn’t start out that way. Originally OceanGate followed the rules carefully and sough professional advice from NASA and a university – and actually fully considered and followed the advice. Their first subs were fully submitted for certification. It is only as the business model began to fail that shortcuts became a regular feature. Parts from previous submersibles were re-used. The carbon fiber hull was recommended by OceanGate’s former partners to be nine or ten inches thick. OceanGate decided to go with five.

    And there were problems. If you watched any of the hearings at all, it became readily apparent that the assembly of this thing was beset by a horde of problems and unanswered questions. But the most basic and simple question was “Should carbon fiber be used in a submersible hull?” And the answer based on the evidence offered at the hearing was no.

    This whole tragedy was just nonsense. Adventure capitalism run amok. Two hundred, fifty thousand dollars to go down and see the Titanic. Much like tourists climbing Everest and various billionaire loonies climbing into a spaceship and flying into space for a new and unique experience — this pathetic substitute for actual adventure is what we have today to keep our oligarchic rulers content.  

    What started out as a scientific endeavor to build submersibles for industry and government use morphed over time into a kind of circus sideshow. Built in a cylindrical form against all intelligent advice to allow for passengers, the exploratory device became a sort of tourist bus to nowhere.

    If Stockton Rush had a tiny bit of sense, he would have admitted his business model had been superseded in the greater part by ROV’s, sold his original subs and found a useful purpose in his life instead of charging the impossible windmill and dying just to prove he was right when he clearly wasn’t.

    Incredible Stupidity, the Death of Peanut the Squirrel

    On By southwerkIn business ethics

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/02/peanut-squirrel-euthanized-new-york

    Words fail me.

    Let us try to keep it simple. I used to teach criminal justice courses (I am now retired). One of the things that was difficult to convey to my students who were on their way to becoming law enforcement was when to or not to enforce the law.

    They always seemed to come in with the weird idea that all laws should be enforced. Absolutely not. I started explaining that some laws were not really workable. For instance, one state has a blasphemy law that said denying the divinity of Jesus Christ was a crime and defining that crime as a felony. So, I enquired as to whether the class once they were in law enforcement wished to round up all other religious believers besides Christians and charge them with felonies. The class would decide that this was a bad idea.

    Then we discussed adultery laws. Many states have laws forbidding sex between consenting adults. I point out that many serious crimes happen. There are murders, rapes, robberies and other assorted mayhem. Is it a good used of your law enforcement resources to be peering in bedroom windows at two A.M. to see if people are having sex? The class will agree that some offenses deserve more attention than others.

    Then we discuss “puppycide.” This is a slang criminal justice term for cops blowing away people’s beloved pets. This happens a lot more often than is well known. I have done some research on the subject. I explain that if you want to bring the reputation of your department or state down to truly pitiful and despised level killing a beloved pet for the most minor of reasons is just how to do it.

    And thus, we come to the case above.

    The proper action of a state agency confronted by the facts above is to do nothing. It is a simple matter of exercising intelligence and judgment.

    Sending a raiding party of armed men to murder a squirrel and raccoon is not an intelligent law enforcement decision.

    Doing something like this makes your agency the subject of criticism and ridicule.

    And it is completely deserved.

    Changes of leadership and personnel are required. You cannot have fools running agencies. There is simply no telling what other nonsense these idiots have perpetrated that have fallen below the radar. They just got caught this time. Does this agency need to exist? Does it require these resources or these personnel?

    Give a fool a gun and bad things happen. Give a fool or a collection of fools a federal, state or city agency and many, many bad things happen.

    Someone need to stand up and take action.

    Accountability is important.

    James Alan Pilant

    Why Isn’t This a Crime??

    On By southwerkIn business ethics

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/home-depot-pay-2-million-133019838.html

    Home Depot is paying a settlement of around two million dollars for “scanner violations.”

    Here is a direct quote from the article referenced at the top:

    The complaint filed in San Diego Superior Court said that when people at Home Depot brought an item to checkout, they would be charged more money than was written on the shelf tag or on the item itself. Such violations are called “scanner violations,” the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said in a press release Thursday.

    Why isn’t this a crime? These customers were charged more than the listed price. Is there anyone, anywhere who believes this was just a mistake?

    And missing from the article is the most important piece of information of all — how much did Home Depot profit from this nefarious scheme? I suspect that the two million dollars penalty is but a tiny fraction of the amount taken from consumers.

    Apparently living as we do in the declining and predatory phase of capitalism this is regarded as a success ful business decision. It is also, evil, morally bankrupt, and a profound insult to the duty of honesty and fair dealing. Jack Welch and Milton Friedman would undoubtedly be impressed by the business skills here displayed by Home Depot.

    Do we want morality and ethics in our business dealings in the United States? Apparently not very much or hardly at all. A fine which appears to be but a small fraction of the amount stolen by scanner violations is not going to discourage the company from stealing again.

    What are we becoming as a nation, as a people and as a civilization where we routinize simple theft as just part of doing business? It is not too much to demand that businesses abide by the listed prices. It is not too much to demand that businesses abstain from theft. It is not too much to expect that businesses treat their customers as guests and assets rather than easy marks.

    We do what is right because it is right, not because it is profitable, or that people might like us. We have duties as Americans to our fellow citizens and the nation as a whole. And if I may speak frankly, a duty to Almighty God to live as just human beings.

    James Pilant

    Rudy Giuliani Disbarred

    On By southwerkIn business ethics

    Back in 2001 after 9/11, this outcome would not have been considered possible. And yet, here we are.

    Giuliani failed in his duty as an attorney. He lied directly to the court. There have to be penalties for this crime. But how did he get here? How did he fall this far?

    I have read that he was never the great man that he was portrayed as. He was more of a mirage. I have come over time to believe that. He was never the man, the public believed that he was.

    He had opportunity that virtually no human being has ever had. For a time, he was “America’s Mayor,” the very epitome of what our fellow countrymen thought was patriotic and brave. His future seemed unlimited. Most believed that the White House was next.

    It appears that as time went by, the things that made him successful were cast aside in his seeking financial gain and status. In particular, his marriages involved trading up (so to speak) in terms of high society. He forgot where he came from and what he was. Instead of man fighting for justice and a determined enemy of wrong doing, he morphed into at first an establishment politician and then a devoted if not openly slavish follower of the great American mirage, Donald Trump.

    Like some crazed gambler, he put every chip, every resource, every shred of reputation, down for Trump. When the former president, needed someone to make the case that there was vast fraud in the 2020 election, he stepped up. He zealously led the charge against voter fraud. He only lacked one necessary item, any evidence on behalf of his case. He had no evidence that wrongdoing had taken place and so not having evidence, he lied claiming that there was evidence.

    Here let me quote from the article referenced below:

    The court found that the former mob prosecutor “falsely and dishonestly” made claims that thousands of votes were cast in the name of dead people in Philadelphia. He also falsely claimed that people from nearby Camden, New Jersey, were taken to vote illegally in the Pennsylvania city, the court stated. The New York’s Appellate Division, First Department ruled that Giuliani “flagrantly misused” his position as Trump’s former attorney and his campaign to create “intentionally” false statements “some of which were perjurious, to the federal court, state lawmakers, the public, the AGC, and this Court concerning the 2020 Presidential election, in which he baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process.”

    I could go on to talk about his other problems and his other failings but this is enough.

    It resembles a tale told by the Greeks back during their Golden Age. A man favored beyond all other men, becomes full of pride and acts foolishly, squandering his reputation and ruining his life.

    Hubris is dangerous, even today.

    In conclusion, what are the ethical rules here? What should he have done? While devoting himself to Trump may be considered unwise, if he had merely acted the role of an attorney and presented the little evidence he had, he would certainly have gained nothing in the courts for his claims of election impropriety but he would have been innocent of any crime. That is where he should have stopped. But to escape disappointing his benefactor, he lied exuberantly about the evidence he claimed to have. This was his moral wrong. It is expected that a lawyer will defend the interests of his client zealously but lying to the fact finding body, the court, is wrong and it is also a crime. And thus he suffers the penalty for this misjudgment.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/rudy-giuliani-disbarred-effective-immediately-175718799.html