The Code of the Shysters

Even crooks have moral codes. The difference is that the crook code applies unevenly and doesn't include precepts such as "fair play" and the "golden rule" and the ones about not killing and not screwing your neighbor's wife and so on. 

Look at Roger Ailes. The man is a cesspool and he's revered and rich and a kingmaker and now sits at the hand of his latest project, Trump, who is himself a shyster and a crook and a charlatan. It isn't surprising that they are crooked.

But it's surprising that they are admired and supported by the people whose interests they imperil. It is said that Ailes wants to make Trump palatable to the party poobahs and everyone else. We'll see. It doesn't matter much.

We have all already lost by accepting the charade as anything remotely normal.