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Clarence Thomas corruption

marc

marc

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ProPublica published an article about Clarence Thomas, and his billionaire buddy Harlan Crow, who has been giving Thomas luxury vacations, flights, and big donations to Gini Thomas' Tea Party group. None of which was reported.

of course these are not political gifts, just friends hanging out on trips that would cost millions to charter.

www.propublica.org

Clarence Thomas Secretly Accepted Luxury Trips From Major GOP Donor

Island-hopping on a superyacht. Private jet rides around the world. The undisclosed gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the Supreme Court. “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” says one former judge.
www.propublica.org www.propublica.org
 
I have no doubt that Clarence Thomas is a brilliant man and is exceedingly well versed in constitutional law. But he's never been fit to sit on the Supreme Court due to his behavior years ago. He also seems to lack personal judgement in other matters which could seem to impair his ability to act impartially in cases before him: his wife's actions, for one, this sort of behavior which could be seen as attempts to influence a justice/corruption.
 
Openly engaging in behavior that would get you fired (or disbarred) if you weren't in an executive position is the very definition of corruption.

Luckily for Thomas, Americans are unable to pay attention to what's going on at the Supreme Court for more than ten minutes at a time.
 
I think it is funny, that I'd actually prefer Thomas to be ruling in a pro-Plessy v Ferguson manner because he was getting paid off, rather than because he think Marbury v Madison should be revoked and judicial oversight is only necessary against liberals.
 
Swammerdami said:
This seems far FAR worse than the hush-slush for Stormy Daniels.

It's ridiculous that this Clarence is allowed to serve on the Supreme Court -- he should be locked up in penitentiary.
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It’s not, actually. Trump paid his money to multiple people as part of an effort to commit tax fraud and election fraud. Thomas is the person who is accused of potentially being ‘bought.’ Trump is accused of doing the buying in NYC.
 
starwater said:
ZiprHead said:
Thomas should have been impeached for lying during his appointment hearing.
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Can a sitting Supreme still be impeached?
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Sure. Will the Republicans impeach the buddy of one of their mega-donors? No.

At this point, Republicans in Congress would probably react to this news by introducing legislation that makes a Justice immune to prosecution no matter what the crime.
 
My first thought on reading the Propublica article was that Thomas is even more above the law than Donald Trump. Not only can he thumb his nose at the courts, he IS basically the courts. With a lifetime appointment, the only constraint on what he can get away with is impeachment by a Senate that has a superminority of Republicans. And that superminority would never vote to kick out a fellow Republican who votes so reliably on their side of the politics of Supreme Court cases. They don't care what he does, unless he were to suddenly reform and start voting with Democrats (at which point, the Democrats would not impeach him).

The man is quite literally untouchable, and calls for the Supreme Court to reform its ethics are simply laughable. They can pretend to do it, but anyone on the Court who violates its ethical standards can thumb his nose at the rest of the Court. The only consequence is that everyone yells "Shame!" at him or her.

What we really need is term limits on Supreme Court tenures. Let them keep their lifelong sinecures, if that is what people want. Just don't let them stay on the highest court for the rest of their lives.
 
So if a billionaire wants to take friends on his vacation what does that billionaire do if those friends simply can't afford to go? I honestly don't see the problem here. If this billionaire had offered Thomas exclusive use of his jet for Thomas pleasure and use I would see that as a big problem. But if that same billionaire simply takes friends on his vacation (for which he is already going on anyway) where is the problem with this? I would think this happens all the time with non politicians such as Bill Gates or Bezos. And I'm sure it happens all the time with rock stars and groupies. Do we want to start telling rock stars they can't take female friends (that don't pay) with them on tour? Yes, I agree when you pay a friends way to go along it can change the power dynamic a little bit, but Thomas has a lifetime job no matter what he does.

There is no one who hates corruption in our government more than I do! Our government being extremely corrupt is a huge problem! But I just don't see the problem in this case. The real problem (if there is even a problem) is that some one is so filthy rich he can do just about anything he wants, including taking his free loading friends for his own pleasure and company. But that is what America is supposed to be about! You work hard and you get to play hard, right? Thomas going on those vacations did not affect my taxes or way of life in any way I am aware of. We obviously don't know all the detail but it seems more than plausible they could have just been friends with no tit for tat motives.

Contrast this to the Pelosi insider stock trading and there is no comparison IMO. That would be the kind of corruption that directly affects my 401k, my taxes and quality of life. That is the kind of corruption the Democrats should be looking at! Contrast this to the non elected run away agencies of the government who file charges for political purposes, and there simply is no comparison there either.
 
Clarence is all about equality. Showing that a black man can be an avaricious scumbag as much as any white man.
 
RVonse said:
So if a billionaire wants to take friends on his vacation what does that billionaire do if those friends simply can't afford to go? I honestly don't see the problem here. If this billionaire had offered Thomas exclusive use of his jet for Thomas pleasure and use I would see that as a big problem. But if that same billionaire simply takes friends on his vacation (for which he is already going on anyway) where is the problem with this? I would think this happens all the time with non politicians such as Bill Gates or Bezos. And I'm sure it happens all the time with rock stars and groupies. Do we want to start telling rock stars they can't take female friends (that don't pay) with them on tour? Yes, I agree when you pay a friends way to go along it can change the power dynamic a little bit, but Thomas has a lifetime job no matter what he does.
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The problem begins when the billionaire's friend is a high public official who may have something to do with the billionaire's fortune and influence. That you don't see this when it involves a Republican is unsurprising, but you do seem to get the point when a Democrat is being similarly accused. What you are doing here is ignoring the fact that there are special laws that apply to government employees barring them from receiving such friendly "gifts" and not reporting them. In this case, billionaire Crow seems to have crafted the language of his response to the press in a legalized way. That is, he has pulled out specific wording to try to make it look like a purely innocent exercise (which happened to involve also inviting lobbyists and other high government officials on these little friendly excursions).

See:

Justice Thomas accused of breaking the law by going on secret ‘superyacht’ trips, and his billionaire pal had a telling response​


RVonse said:
There is no one who hates corruption in our government more than I do! Our government being extremely corrupt is a huge problem! But I just don't see the problem in this case. The real problem (if there is even a problem) is that some one is so filthy rich he can do just about anything he wants, including taking his free loading friends for his own pleasure and company. But that is what America is supposed to be about! You work hard and you get to play hard, right? Thomas going on those vacations did not affect my taxes or way of life in any way I am aware of. We obviously don't know all the detail but it seems more than plausible they could have just been friends with no tit for tat motives.
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America is actually not about the filthy rich getting to do anything they want. It is actually treating the filthy rich as if they weren't any different from the filthy poor and the filthy middle class. Hence, there are laws and ethics standards designed to prevent appearances of impropriety and make it easier to detect corruption, when it happens. Thomas did once report a gift from Crow back in the 1990s, so he must have understood the principle back then. But Crow wasn't as generous on the gift he reported.


RVonse said:
Contrast this to the Pelosi insider stock trading and there is no comparison IMO. That would be the kind of corruption that directly affects my 401k, my taxes and quality of life. That is the kind of corruption the Democrats should be looking at! Contrast this to the non elected run away agencies of the government who file charges for political purposes, and there simply is no comparison there either.
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Why do you persist in treating this incident as if it only mattered when you see it as having an impact on your personal life and not on the lives of other citizens? Oh, wait. You aren't "woke".
 
RVonse said:
There is no one who hates corruption in our government more than I do!
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The rest of your post suggests that this is not the case, and that the vast majority of people hate corruption in your government far more than you do, not least because they are more competent to recognise it when it's right there staring them in the face.
 
bilby said:
RVonse said:
There is no one who hates corruption in our government more than I do!
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The rest of your post suggests that this is not the case, and that the vast majority of people hate corruption in your government far more than you do, not least because they are more competent to recognise it when it's right there staring them in the face.
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In fact, this whole "no one X more than me" is a rhetorical device that immediately discredits (or at least devalues) the speaker in my estimation. Note that Trump uses this all the time, and he's a consummate liar.
 
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