Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire

[Ana the Ist]

The voting rights act of 1965 has been decimated by the Supreme Court.

How so?

Yeah, my state with an 80% Republican legislature just passed a permissive child labor law. All Dems and 1 Republican voted no.

Last I checked, 12 states have rolled back child labor laws to some degree. I think some are going piecemeal and not just pushing through wild stuff.

My black friends believe he betrays his race.

Did you take a poll or something?

He's a Supreme Court Justice....beholden to the Constitution in the interests of everyone. He has more integrity than your friends. He's not up there to hand out goodies to preferred skin colors.

Their opinion should count for more.

No, it shouldn't. They're people, no better or worse than anyone else....and just as fallible. They aren't floating above the rest of us speaking truth into existence.

I am sure he was both discriminated against and helped by affirmative action.

I don't think Affirmative Action was passed yet but whatever.

By aligning himself with only white conservatives,

It's hilarious you think this.

he is treasured because he is so rare. Pretty shrewd of him to go rogue.

Since Justices are appointed for life...they aren't subject to party pressures.

In the Democratic Party he would be one of the crowd and bested by many of them. I am sure Jackson can think rings around him.

Haven't heard her speak huh?

 

[USincognito]

Just love it when the shenanigans of their own are off-limits. . .in the name of some absurd irregularity.

Long on innuendo, short on facts. Do you have a citation for this assertion?

That's sum integrity. . .

Pun?

Right and wrong are in the eye of the beholder. So whose view governs, the eye of the accused or the eye of the accuser?

Codes of ethics have been the norm in government and business for 50 years. The American Society of Public Administrators has promoted ethical practices in government since 1984. This isn't some abstract concept we're talking about. It's a well developed corpus of thought in business and public administration.

Just love it that support of law and its enforcement are seen as "tribalism," "what-about-ism," "oligarchal," "anti-democratic," "a red herring," "unethical," etc., etc., etc. . .when they find themselves on the wrong side of it. Not too obvious, that.

The irony being that those defending an oligarch engaging in the unethical lavishing of gifts on a sitting associate Justice are only doing so because of tribalism. If this were the Notorious RBG or Justice Sotomayor, the Conservisphere would be having a collective meltdown. If it were Justice Jackson, it would be even worse.

Buckle your seat belts, folks, because we are in for a dreadful ride, where reality and natural truth are set on their heads and turned inside out. . .and at the devastating price of the destruction of Western civilization, which is built on just laws and their enforcement.

Interesting. I recall concerns from the right about post-modernism entrenching itself in the left while I was in college during the 80s and early 90s. Then came the rise of talk radio where the facts where whatever the guy on the radio told you to think. Now we have a White House Chief of Staff talking about "alternative facts", sitting Congressmen (who we all saw crouched in fear on J6) claiming it was just a "normal tourist visit", and millions claiming that one guy on video calling for entering the Capitol convinced 2000+ people, who had no intention of ever doing so, to go home, equip themselves with body armor, zip ties, baseball bats and bear spray; engage in medieval combat with police officers - ironically beating and spearing them with thin blue line flags - and bust their way into the building to hunt down lawmakers.

Dreadful ride indeed.

 

[Ana the Ist]

I dont need a law to tell me something is right or wrong.

I expect to hear crickets if the same story comes with a left leaning judge. I expect it cause I won't because ita not really about "law" is it? It's just tribalism.

When I pointed out that not only did the FBI, DOJ, DHS and other federal agencies have a considerable amount of influence in silencing both right wing political candidates and certain narratives around Biden’s laptop, Covid, and this influence also included large sums of money, regular weekly meetings leading up to the election, and agents working at Twitter...

I believe the response someone told me was...

Trump also had tweets removed. Then an example of a celebrity calling Trump a mean name being removed was provided.

As if Trump's office using Twitter the same way that anyone would was somehow equivalent to the large scale coordinated corruption of the federal government.

But I hear that Clarence Thomas once took a yacht ride with a rich guy. Feel free to explain your sudden interest in corruption while the current administration pretends that we don't already know that the sitting president is guilty of crimes (mishandling highly classified documents) that the previous president is being investigated for...

You've got a sitting president who imported 5 million people for illegal labor, shipped them around the nation, and this includes many children either with family or alone. You also have multiple states that have passed legislation quiet rolling back child labor laws....any of which could be challenged as violations of international human rights and at least ruled on. Yet unsurprisingly, not a peep from the feds.

This stuff about Thomas though? It's super serious. It's definitely not a distraction from the embarrassing case Bragg put together or the continual dump of info that has shown the majority of the federal government is dirty....

Because Clarence Thomas should have written this stuff down. He's not an expert on procedural ethics or anything.
Would Thomas be able to use the Biden excuse? Will a "Oops I forgot about that" suffice?

It's not whataboutism....it's just obvious the left doesn't actually care about ethics or corruption.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Oh now I know....I almost forgot.

A literal treasure trove of the highest classified military documents, including our plans in Ukraine, were just recently leaked to our enemies in Russia, China, and N Korea.

That's why we got information on Thomas they've had for 20 years. Probably why the 12 page Afghanistan summary came out too.

 

[Clare73]

Long on innuendo, short on facts. Do you have a citation for this assertion?

Pun?

Codes of ethics have been the norm in government and business for 50 years. The American Society of Public Administrators has promoted ethical practices in government since 1984. This isn't some abstract concept we're talking about. It's a well developed corpus of thought in business and public administration.

So?. . .none of which gives it the authority of law.
The Constitution counts for something.

The irony being that those defending an oligarch engaging in the unethical lavishing of gifts on a sitting associate Justice are only doing so because of tribalism.

You left out whataboutism, etc.
Love it. . .can't be legitimate if you don't agree with it.

If this were the Notorious RBG or Justice Sotomayor, the Conservisphere would be having a collective meltdown. If it were Justice Jackson, it would be even worse.

Interesting. I recall concerns from the right about post-modernism entrenching itself in the left while I was in college during the 80s and early 90s. Then came the rise of talk radio where the facts where whatever the guy on the radio told you to think. Now we have a White House Chief of Staff talking about "alternative facts", sitting Congressmen (who we all saw crouched in fear on J6) claiming it was just a "normal tourist visit", and millions claiming that one guy on video calling for entering the Capitol convinced 2000+ people, who had no intention of ever doing so, to go home, equip themselves with body armor, zip ties, baseball bats and bear spray; engage in medieval combat with police officers - ironically beating and spearing them with thin blue line flags - and bust their way into the building to hunt down lawmakers.

Dreadful ride indeed.

Great example of hyberbole. . .

A lot of footage of that "raid" on Jan 6 has been presented, and your representation of it is not in agreement.

 

[Clare73]

When I pointed out that not only did the FBI, DOJ, DHS and other federal agencies have a considerable amount of influence in silencing both right wing political candidates and certain narratives around Biden’s laptop, Covid, and this influence also included large sums of money, regular weekly meetings leading up to the election, and agents working at Twitter...
I believe the response someone told me was...
Trump also had tweets removed. Then an example of a celebrity calling Trump a mean name being removed was provided.
As if Trump's office using Twitter the same way that anyone would was somehow equivalent to the large scale coordinated corruption of the federal government.

But I hear that Clarence Thomas once took a yacht ride with a rich guy. Feel free to explain your sudden interest in corruption while the current administration pretends that we don't already know that the sitting president is guilty of crimes (mishandling highly classified documents) that the previous president is being investigated for...

You've got a sitting president who imported 5 million people for illegal labor, shipped them around the nation, and this includes many children either with family or alone. You also have multiple states that have passed legislation quiet rolling back child labor laws....any of which could be challenged as violations of international human rights and at least ruled on. Yet unsurprisingly, not a peep from the feds.

This stuff about Thomas though? It's super serious. It's definitely not a distraction from the embarrassing case Bragg put together or the continual dump of info that has shown the majority of the federal government is dirty....

Because Clarence Thomas should have written this stuff down. He's not an expert on procedural ethics or anything.
Would Thomas be able to use the Biden excuse? Will a "Oops I forgot about that" suffice?

It's not whataboutism....it's just obvious the left doesn't actually care about ethics or corruption.

When did pointing out the offenses of the false accusers become foul play?

 

[Ana the Ist]

When did pointing out the offenses of the false accusers become foul play?

It's a distraction...nothing more.

They've got big problems. Don't want to allocate any billions to the Ukraine while information is leaking from this administration like a siv.

 

[Larniavc]

This stuff about Thomas though?

He’s bought and paid for.

 

[Whyayeman]

When did pointing out the offenses of the false accusers become foul play?

This is often seen as deflecting the discussion away from the subject in hand. The issue here is that a judge accepting very large gifts from someone can be seen as corrupt. Judges should take care to guard against such charges. Accepting large gifts is not illegal, but that is not the point.

Clarence Thomas has compromised himself.

 

[Fantine]

He's a Supreme Court Justice....beholden to the Constitution in the interests of everyone. He has more integrity than your friends. He's not up there to hand out goodies to preferred skin colors.

Given the events of the past week--and revelations over the past twenty years--believing he has the most integrity is delusional.

The Constitution is just a document to be manipulated.

And if you want to read the voting rights decisions look them up. Basically he said racism is no longer an issue so they are unnecessary.

Immediately after the decision, red states started suppressing votes particularly in large cities.
Hmm..

 

[DaisyDay]

Folks complain about politicians and then give their own politicians a pass when it comes to impropriety. What a joke.

If only it were a joke.

 

[Clare73]

This is often seen as deflecting the discussion away from the subject in hand. The issue here is that a judge accepting very large gifts from someone can be seen as corrupt. Judges should take care to guard against such charges. Accepting large gifts is not illegal, but that is not the point.

Clarence Thomas has compromised himself.

In my experience, one can be "seen as corrupt" for whatever is disagreeable.

It's hard to believe anyone would support so subjective a standard, when we have law codes.

 

[Whyayeman]

In my experience, one can be "seen as corrupt" for whatever is disagreeable.

It's hard to believe anyone would support so subjective a standard, when we have law codes.

Thomas risks being seen corrupt for very a specific reason, not for 'whatever is disagreeable'. He accepted very substantial gifts - far more than his own annual salary as a judge - from one person. It is hard not to suspect that such generosity was not repaid somehow.

His way out is to repay the donor from his own resources or to resign. There is no other honourable course that I can think of.

 

[Clare73]

Thomas risks being seen corrupt for very a specific reason, not for 'whatever is disagreeable'. He accepted very substantial gifts - far more than his own annual salary as a judge - from one person. It is hard not to suspect that such generosity was not repaid somehow.

His way out is to repay the donor from his own resources or to resign. There is no other honourable course that I can think of.

Did he get a ride or a yacht?

Until you have proof of breaking the law, having a wealthy friend is not illegal.

We are governed by law, not by appearances in the eye of the some beholders.

Cancel-culture is not working here.

 

[Whyayeman]

Until you have proof of breaking the law, having a wealthy friend is not illegal.

Not illegal, but unethical. Your posts take no account of any code of conduct for people in public office or of the concept of honour.

Clarence Thomas may continue in office but his reputation is from this moment tainted and any judgments he participates in will be tarnished. We have in the UK a perfect example; Prince Andrew, brother of the King can no longer participate in public life because of his dishonourable conduct even though no crime has been established. He has been forced out of public life by his conduct.

 

[Clare73]

Not illegal, but unethical. Your posts take no account of any code of conduct for people in public office or of the concept of honour.

Clarence Thomas may continue in office but his reputation is from this moment tainted and any judgments he participates in will be tarnished. We have in the UK a perfect example; Prince Andrew, brother of the King can no longer participate in public life because of his dishonourable conduct even though no crime has been established. He has been forced out of public life by his conduct.

According to what objective ethics are the wealthy necessarily unethical?

So one must abandon the guys he grew up with who are now wealthy, because it is unethical to have them as friends.

The absurdity just keeps getting worse.

 

[DaisyDay]

I don't think Affirmative Action was passed yet but whatever.

Wrong, check your dates.

According to what objective ethics are the wealthy necessarily unethical?

So one must abandon the guys he grew up with who are now wealthy, because it is unethical to have them as friends.

The absurdity just keeps getting worse.

Are you claiming that Clarence Thomas grew up with Harlan Crow? You have been told repeatedly that it is not their "friendship" that is the issue, but the millions of dollars of unreported gifts, so why not drop that assertion.

 

[Clare73]

Wrong, check your dates.

Are you claiming that Clarence Thomas grew up with Harlan Crow? You have been told repeatedly that it is not their "friendship" that is the issue, but the millions of dollars of unreported gifts, so why not drop that assertion.

The law did not require Thomas to report those "gifts."

And what rides are worth millions of dollars?

Wrong on the facts and the alleged violation of law.

 

[DaisyDay]

The law did not require Thomas to report those "gifts."

I'm not so sure about that.

And what rides are worth millions of dollars?

It adds up to millions of dollars over the last decade and it's not just "rides" (although private jets and super yachts are pricey) - it is all the gifts, vacations, etc. Reports are that one single vacation would've cost about $500,000, just one and there have been others every year for the last ten years or so.

Wrong on the facts and the alleged violation of law.

Wrong on which facts? I thought it was the ethics that he is criticized of violating, but you tell me, what law was I referring to?

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

And again, are you claiming that Clarence Thomas grew up with Harlan Crow?

 

[Whyayeman]

Wrong on the facts and the alleged violation of law.

Nobody here has claimed that Clarence Thomas broke the law. I say he has acted with impropriety in accepting those many very expensive gifts and that he has compromised his integrity. The honourable thing would be to give back what was spent on him or resign from the Court; really he should do both.

Not much more to say here, really, is there?