Bought and paid for

[Elixir]

I saw a tally on msnbc and if it’s correct, “Justice” Thomas has raked in over SIXTEEN TIMES as much as all other Justices combined.
Dude is a slimeball.

 

[thebeave]

That chart is a little misleading. Thomas has been in the SC for the whole twenty years, and many of the others much less than that (Jackson and O'Connor, especially). So you would expect him to have more on that basis alone. And what is the policy anyway on SC justices' accepting "gifts"? If its a no-no, then aren't they all behaving badly, and its just a matter of degree?

As I recall from my training, government employees for all intents and purposes accept no gifts, it's like $10 value or something very low. It gets a bit convoluted between gifts, company sponsored events (receiving a plaque), and (eating at) social gatherings but I do not remember anything about exceptions for SCJs, congress critters, etc.
As a govt employee, you're not even suppose to accept someone else paying for lunch.

As an NPS employee all I ever got was a "Muffin Monster" ballcap and t-shirt from a company rep after installing the controllers for some new grinders. Fuck me. I missed out.

Exactly. I used to work for a major defense contractor and I recall from our regular mandatory ethics training that we were not allowed to accept gifts or meals from vendors, subcontractors, consultants, etc. Except for maybe a small $10 item like a branded coffee mug or calendar, etc. It wasn't exactly difficult to do. The fact that the SC was not subject to similar conditions is a little baffling.

 

[Ford]

That chart is a little misleading. Thomas has been in the SC for the whole twenty years, and many of the others much less than that (Jackson and O'Connor, especially). So you would expect him to have more on that basis alone. And what is the policy anyway on SC justices' accepting "gifts"? If its a no-no, then aren't they all behaving badly, and its just a matter of degree?

As I recall from my training, government employees for all intents and purposes accept no gifts, it's like $10 value or something very low. It gets a bit convoluted between gifts, company sponsored events (receiving a plaque), and (eating at) social gatherings but I do not remember anything about exceptions for SCJs, congress critters, etc.
As a govt employee, you're not even suppose to accept someone else paying for lunch.

As an NPS employee all I ever got was a "Muffin Monster" ballcap and t-shirt from a company rep after installing the controllers for some new grinders. Fuck me. I missed out.

Exactly. I used to work for a major defense contractor and I recall from our regular mandatory ethics training that we were not allowed to accept gifts or meals from vendors, subcontractors, consultants, etc. Except for maybe a small $10 item like a branded coffee mug or calendar, etc. It wasn't exactly difficult to do. The fact that the SC was not subject to similar conditions is a little baffling.

Back when I was in Top 40 radio in the 90s, I enjoyed some "perks" from the record companies and independent promoters. Meals at restaurants I couldn't afford, free airfare and hotel rooms for a couple conferences, tickets to awards shows, maybe some long happy hours at the strip club across the street...but at some point, the record industry and the radio industry both said "okay...we've got to stop doing this stuff. It's not a good look." In short order, anything beyond a business lunch needed documentation that was run through legal, and any gift had to be returned immediately.

What I'm saying is that the record industry is now - somehow - more ethical than the Supreme Court.

We live in interesting times....

 

[ZiprHead]

I think House Dems need to call for an impeachment. Yeah, I know the Republicans would block it but it would be another demonstration of how corrupt the Republicans are.

 

[Ford]

I think House Dems need to call for an impeachment. Yeah, I know the Republicans would block it but it would be another demonstration of how corrupt the Republicans are.

Unfortunately, the impeachment process died right about the time that said corrupt Republicans used it to try and remove that slick Southern Democrat who saxophoned his way into two terms in the White House.

They turned impeachment into a political temper tantrum. By the time that a President actually merited removal by impeachment, the process had become a joke. A partisan performative exercise rather than a legitimate constitutional remedy. Unless a President, or Supreme Court Justice, or any other high level federal government official lights the original Declaration of Independence AND the Constitution on fire in the middle of the Capitol rotunda and puts it out with their urine, nobody will ever be impeached again.

Ever. That ship has sailed. The horse has left the barn. The author of the comment has run out of metaphors.

 

[thebeave]

I think House Dems need to call for an impeachment. Yeah, I know the Republicans would block it but it would be another demonstration of how corrupt the Republicans are.

An impeachment of who? And what's the charge?

 

[RVonse]

The fucker is corrupt as shit,

I thought you were talking about Nancy Pelosi for a brief moment. The only difference I see between her and Thomas is that there are actually insider trading laws she should get charged for, but (so far as I'm aware) supreme justices can take all the shit they want. Legally.

So spare me all this liberal media drama and the big pony show over how corrupt Thomas is (which he no doubt is).

Clean up Pelosi first if you want to have some credibility. Her corruption is actually unlawful and starring everyone in the face.

 

[bilby]

The fucker is corrupt as shit,

I thought you were talking about Nancy Pelosi for a brief moment. The only difference I see between her and Thomas is that there are actually insider trading laws she should get charged for, but (so for that I'm aware) supreme justices can take all the shit they want. Legally.

So spare me all this liberal media drama and the big pony show over how corrupt Thomas is (which he no doubt is).

Clean up Pelosi first if you want to have some credibility. Her corruption is actually unlawful and starring everyone in the face.

If you google "whataboutism" or "Tu Quoque Fallacy", the above post is now the top hit.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I think House Dems need to call for an impeachment. Yeah, I know the Republicans would block it but it would be another demonstration of how corrupt the Republicans are.

If he was being bribed to rule a certain way, yes absolutely. But he isn't being bribed to change his rulings. He is being bribed to keep the seat warm.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Pelosi Pelosi Pelosi!

 

[Ford]

Pelosi Pelosi Pelosi!

Last time I checked, Nancy was not appointed to a lifetime term in office where she could never be held to account by anyone.

 

[Spacetime Inhabitant]

The fucker is corrupt as shit,

I thought you were talking about Nancy Pelosi for a brief moment. The only difference I see between her and Thomas is that there are actually insider trading laws she should get charged for, but (so far as I'm aware) supreme justices can take all the shit they want. Legally.

So spare me all this liberal media drama and the big pony show over how corrupt Thomas is (which he no doubt is).

Clean up Pelosi first if you want to have some credibility. Her corruption is actually unlawful and starring everyone in the face.

Is there any actual evidence that Pelosi has committed the alleged crime, or is it just more right-wing fantasies from Carlson Tucker, et al?

 

[bilby]

Is there any actual evidence that Pelosi has committed the alleged crime, or is it just more right-wing fantasies from Carlson Tucker, et al?

It doesn't matter either way; Thomas would be exactly equally guilty in both cases.

It's pure distraction.

 

[TV and credit cards]

That chart is a little misleading. Thomas has been in the SC for the whole twenty years, and many of the others much less than that (Jackson and O'Connor, especially). So you would expect him to have more on that basis alone. And what is the policy anyway on SC justices' accepting "gifts"? If its a no-no, then aren't they all behaving badly, and its just a matter of degree?

As I recall from my training, government employees for all intents and purposes accept no gifts, it's like $10 value or something very low. It gets a bit convoluted between gifts, company sponsored events (receiving a plaque), and (eating at) social gatherings but I do not remember anything about exceptions for SCJs, congress critters, etc.
As a govt employee, you're not even suppose to accept someone else paying for lunch.

As an NPS employee all I ever got was a "Muffin Monster" ballcap and t-shirt from a company rep after installing the controllers for some new grinders. Fuck me. I missed out.

Exactly. I used to work for a major defense contractor and I recall from our regular mandatory ethics training that we were not allowed to accept gifts or meals from vendors, subcontractors, consultants, etc. Except for maybe a small $10 item like a branded coffee mug or calendar, etc. It wasn't exactly difficult to do. The fact that the SC was not subject to similar conditions is a little baffling.

Oh yeah. And a little Raytheon swag. But that's it.
NFETP

 

[Janice Rael]

MISTER GINNI! Clarence Thomas, Clarence Thomas, Clarence Thomas, whoooo, shiiiit, Clarence Thomas.

[political humor/scathing hot take]Ginni's prenup must be the actual Loving vs Virginia decision, Clarence wants a divorce and an annulment soooo badly, oh my gosh are they two unhappily yolked until death do they part people!

I know some things and I know some people. I know some people who have things and I know some people who have people. I know people who have no things, no people. I know folks all in-between, people are a spectrum, too. I don't flex any kind of authority unless I do, because I know that claims require evidence.

I could absosmurfinlutely tear down ... arguments online, that are merely typed [tapped, etc] chats and discussions.

I have reason to believe that I could shut them each and/or both right the heck up, if anyone would let me represent the 856 in person, privately. I mean, I'd end up in federal Pound-Me-in-the-Ass prison for suggesting it, much less saying it; we can't say things. I'd rather be right than happy, though, so I am never dropping my dumb ideas about them and the people like them, who use and abuse the people like us, then like me, then like people who have less than I have.

People aren't turtles, so perhaps I must create a new religion or philosophy about how it's human people all the way down, and all the way back.

No it isn't. I'm wrong. This planet existed before human people did, and some or much of this planet will remain after human people stop getting down, and stop existing.

There are other points in this thread that I wish to sardonically and scathingly scorn, from my position of privileged poverty. I'll try to back it up, but I don't need to; we're all wrong and we all always will be wrong. We're only human, after all.

Clarence and Ginni covet.

If coveting did not exist - then greed could not be harnessed for predatory or harmful purposes. Nor for advertising, marketing, or, perhaps, persuasion.

But the last time they tried to pass laws against greed and coveting? *gestures widely* Well, this is it! Here we are, discussing the failure of laws, in a group of people who don't get my Sadducees joke.

I am laughing from my coffin, and I am no Lazarus. My healthcare ain't free and neither am I.

Mister Ginni. Coke-Can Clarence.

Anita Hill told you so, USA and world.

 

[ZiprHead]

I think House Dems need to call for an impeachment. Yeah, I know the Republicans would block it but it would be another demonstration of how corrupt the Republicans are.

An impeachment of who? And what's the charge?

Thomas, of course. For ethics violations and accepting bribes.

 

[ZiprHead]

The fucker is corrupt as shit,

I thought you were talking about Nancy Pelosi for a brief moment. The only difference I see between her and Thomas is that there are actually insider trading laws she should get charged for, but (so far as I'm aware) supreme justices can take all the shit they want. Legally.

So spare me all this liberal media drama and the big pony show over how corrupt Thomas is (which he no doubt is).

Clean up Pelosi first if you want to have some credibility. Her corruption is actually unlawful and starring everyone in the face.

You have been asked before and you have yet to demonstrate any insider trading done by Pelosi. Please do so now or drop the derail.

 

[Elixir]

Clean up Pelosi first

No, we still have to clean up the Menendez mess.
But you need to get a grip on one fact, Vonse:
Neither Menendez nor Pelosi is sitting in judgment of the corrupt orange turd who is trying to destroy my Country.
So your false equivalence can go fuck itself.

 

[ZiprHead]

I think House Dems need to call for an impeachment. Yeah, I know the Republicans would block it but it would be another demonstration of how corrupt the Republicans are.

If he was being bribed to rule a certain way, yes absolutely. But he isn't being bribed to change his rulings. He is being bribed to keep the seat warm.

Is bribery not a crime anymore, or at least a huge ethical violation?

 

[Janice Rael]

No, we still have to clean up the Menendez mess.

Um, @Elixir ? New Jersey Democrats, including President Barack Obama, who has never been to South Jersey, declined to support their own candidate (as usual) for Governor of NJ in 2013, and that was called Bridgegate, and no one cared.

New Jersey Democrats do not have a primary election until June, months after Iowa and New Hampshire voters choose the party leaders to be candidates. NJ voters are unbothered by having zero say, choice, or vote in regards to the choice of candidate in the primaries.

New Jersey Democrats kept Bob Menendez as Senator on purpose. WHY? Can you believe, the New Jersey Republicans are *worse*?

Don't even get me started on the gerrymandering. They do not care if they win or lose as it does not matter or change the way NJ's machine works.

"Clean up the Menendez mess?" Dude is gonna get convicted, imo. Maybe jailed? I wish. My wishes are as good as my prayers.