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tx 3 putt

By tx 3 putt
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Brisketexan
Brisketexan

Some people and posts above see this for the incredibly dangerous thing it is.  See the whole forest, not just the tree.  Roe is built on the bedrock of the 14th amendment and the inherent right to pr

Ghost of LL
Ghost of LL

The whole episode is pretty bad for the Court.  The leak is embarrassing.  But the decision is catastrophic. You've got a 5-4 decision to get rid of a something that has been settled as a constit

sidis
sidis

in one of the many instances in which i debunked your oversimplified, unsupported bullshit and you simply never responded, i addressed your absolutist contention that religious are more charitable tha

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Gap03

Gap03 3193

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A great summary of where we are on this whole Clarence Thomas / Harlan Crowe situation by Jonathan Last:

Quote

MOAR GIFTS!

This morning we awake to news that conservative billionaire Harlan Crowe also paid for a couple years of tuition at a private school for a kid Clarence Thomas and his wife were raising.

Let me give you the most charitable reading of the story:

In 1997 the Thomas’s brought their great nephew to live with them, presumably because his home life was not optimal. They took legal custody of him and raised him. Justice Thomas’s good friend Harlan Crowe suggested that the young man might thrive at Crowe’s alma mater, Randolph Macon Academy. Crowe then paid for the kid’s first year of tuition.

After the first year, the child was sent to a different boarding school, in Georgia. Crowe paid for this year of tuition, too.

This is the official story from journalist lawyer special-friend of the justice Mark Paoletta, who seems to have taken on the job of crisis coms for Thomas.¹

How much did Crowe spend on tuitions for this kid? That’s unclear. More than $6,000. Maybe as much as $70,000. Fancy Southern boarding schools aren’t cheap.

Was Thomas required by the letter of the law to disclose any of this?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But that’s not really the point.

Even if Thomas was in some violation by not disclosing this . . . what do we call it? A gift? Help from a friend? Even then, it wouldn’t be the biggest deal in the world.

Look: The Thomases did something extraordinary in taking this child in and raising him. God bless them for that. It sounds like they made a difference in his life. And when people take on extraordinary duties, sometimes they need help. That’s why friends and even strangers organize meal trains and start GoFundMe’s. When I was a kid and Hillary Clinton wrote It Takes a Village I laughed and called her a commie. Now that I’ve been around the block and seen the elephant, I realize she’s exactly right. Raising kids is hard. We all need help.

But the ick-factor on this new Thomas story is that it’s part of a pattern.

First we got the stories about Crowe donating money in order to pay the salary of Thomas’s activist/dilettante wife.

Then we found out that Crowe provided many lavish vacations for Thomas and his wife.

Then we learned about Crowe letting Thomas use his private jet for personal travel.

Then we found out that Crowe paid for a gigantic monument to Thomas’s 8th grade teacher.

Then it was discovered that Crowe bought property from Thomas and now allows Thomas’s mom to live rent-free in a house that he (Crowe) owns.

Any one of these things and you might say, “Hmmm. That’s a little strange. But whatever. Rich people are weird and if you have a rich friend maybe they do weird friend stuff.”

But take all of them together? Now we go from “a little weird” to “this is what cam girls hope for in a sugar daddy.”

And call me crazy, but while it’s fine for Supreme Court justices to have good friends, I think it’s not healthy for the Court for them to have sugar daddies.

The recap is perfect and restated for emphasis:

"Any one of these things and you might say, “Hmmm. That’s a little strange. But whatever. Rich people are weird and if you have a rich friend maybe they do weird friend stuff.”

But take all of them together? Now we go from “a little weird” to “this is what cam girls hope for in a sugar daddy.”

And call me crazy, but while it’s fine for Supreme Court justices to have good friends, I think it’s not healthy for the Court for them to have sugar daddies."

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elfenix

elfenix 34127

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But the Supreme Court.
 
Look, I get it---but honestly, at this point, there is only one group that can hold the Supremes accountable for anything---themselves.  Because the GOP sure as hell doesn't want to (unless, of course, we magically had a 6-3 Democratic appointed Supreme Court, but that probably won't happen in the rest of my life).
 
 
 
 


"Personal Responsibility" means only I, personally, can hold me responsible.
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Pods

Pods 7499

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14 minutes ago, ChuckNorrisActionJeans said:

What a joke that Roberts gives a single, solitary fuck about the Court's "legacy."

Legacy, like history, is written by the winners.

Roberts gave up on actual legitimacy and legacy, but he's still angling to be a hero in the history books. 

The only way that happens is if he makes sure the GQP writes both history and his legacy. 

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Horn Dog

Horn Dog 9473

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6 hours ago, HenryJames said:

 

Congress indisputably has the power to legislate ethical standards that bind the supreme court?  But who gets to ultimately decide that again?? And how would you enforce even the most blatant violations?  Strongly worded letters followed by even stronger worded letters?

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45211

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17 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

I thought I had a good run of never spending my own money while on an expat assignment with full and virtually unquestioned expense report. But this mother fucker takes it to another level. 

Shit, I was happy to just pocket most of my per diem on random and rare business trips.  What a piker.

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13318

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Every week brings a new story about how Thomas used his position to enrich himself and his only argument has been some vague memory that someone told him that he didn't have to disclose it. 

What we're finding out is what ProPublica has discovered, and they may have more to come. But it doesn't mean that Thomas' corruption only involves Harlan Crow.

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NameAlreadyInUse

NameAlreadyInUse 5092

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The most shameless defense of unethical behavior I think I've ever seen:

“Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth,” the statement said. “It’s disappointing that those with partisan political interests would try to turn helping at-risk youth with tuition assistance into something nefarious or political.” The statement added that Crow and his wife have “supported many young Americans” at a “variety of schools, including his alma mater.” Crow went to Randolph-Macon Academy.

So tell me how Clarence Thomas is the legal guardian of a child (from 6 years old) who is both less fortunate and at risk.  Make that make sense to me.

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wildcat09

wildcat09 28563

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Just now, NameAlreadyInUse said:

The most shameless defense of unethical behavior I think I've ever seen:

 

 

So tell me how Clarence Thomas is the legal guardian of a child (from 6 years old) who is both less fortunate and at risk.  Make that make sense to me.

To be fair, his mom's house was apparently a total shithole before Crow fixed it up, even though by that time Clarence had long been rich by nearly anyone's standards. I could see him making the kid live in a doghouse in the yard or something.

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C-Man

C-Man 26755

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https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/04/politics/senate-ethics-rules-push-supreme-court/index.html

Quote

Sen. Thom Tillis, a member of Senate Judiciary, told CNN that he would oppose legislation imposing a new code of ethics – and he also argued Thomas’ controversy is not different from other issues involving other justices. But he said that the court has got “work to do” to fix the public’s perception.

“I’m not going to speak to that specific instance because I could sit here and talk about other instances from other justices that the fact patterns are similar, which goes back to the point of the Supreme Court should address this and they should address it on a consensus basis,” Tillis said when asked about concerns of Thomas’ receipt of gifts from a donor.

Tillis added: “You can’t make this issue about Justice Thomas unless you’re willing to make it about any number of other justices who had very similar situations that they’re dealing with, some who are sitting on the court and some who are icons of the court who are now off of it.”

I say bring it the fuck on, Thom. If other justices are compromised, conservative or progressive, they need to be fucking gone or at least held to more stringent ethics rules!

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13318

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Posted

I wonder if ProPublica has checked the ownership history of Thomas' fancy RV that he claims to tour the country with Ginni. At this point, I'm assuming that Crow bought it but decided the next day that he didn't immediately need an RV and leased it to his good friend Clarence for $1/yr. 

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Horn Under a Bad Sign

Horn Under a Bad Sign 20304

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Posted (edited)

Holy fuck. Drip ... drip ... drip .... This just dropped. 

"Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo arranged for the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work just over a decade ago, specifying that her name be left off billing paperwork, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

In January 2012, Leo instructed the GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit group he advises and use that money to pay Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the documents show. The same year, the nonprofit, the Judicial Education Project, filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case.

Leo, a key figure in a network of nonprofits that has worked to support the nominations of conservative judges, told Conway that he wanted her to “give” Ginni Thomas “another $25K,” the documents show. He emphasized that the paperwork should have “No mention of Ginni, of course.”


https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/05/04/leonard-leo-clarence-ginni-thomas-conway/

 

Edited by Horn Under a Bad Sign
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C-Man

C-Man 26755

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2 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

Holy fuck. Drip ... drip ... drip .... This just dropped. 

"Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo arranged for the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work just over a decade ago, specifying that her name be left off billing paperwork, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

In January 2012, Leo instructed the GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit group he advises and use that money to pay Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the documents show. The same year, the nonprofit, the Judicial Education Project, filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case.

Leo, a key figure in a network of nonprofits that has worked to support the nominations of conservative judges, told Conway that he wanted her to “give” Ginni Thomas “another $25K,” the documents show. He emphasized that the paperwork should have “No mention of Ginni, of course.”


https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/05/04/leonard-leo-clarence-ginni-thomas-conway/

 

 

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Pig Bellmont

Pig Bellmont 8637

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11 minutes ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

 

 

“Look, I may have funneled hidden payments of thousands of dollars to a SCOTUS justice through sham nonprofit expenses to his wife, but can’t we think of the real victims? It has to be hard on the Thomases to have everyone find out about all this corruption. Also me. I’m a victim of the evil press. Thanks for having me on Squak Box”

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 103656

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Today's republican party has no shame. 

It’s actually the insane extreme of that: they are PROUD of this. They run society’s nose in it as a show of how above the law and untouchable they are. It’s a warning to the rest of us: we can do whatever we fucking want, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.

This is how fascism works. It always is.
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tx 3 putt

tx 3 putt 75559

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1 hour ago, kevwun said:

I have a feeling that the Thomas' are so greedy that stories like this will be coming out for months.  It looks ike he didn't vote on a case without someone paying him for it.


It’s only just begun, they’re going to dig up everything. He’s not only greedy, but want too smart about even trying to hide any of this. 

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DDD Dad

DDD Dad 14078

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2 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

The more I read about all of this the more convinced I become that the Federalist society is a domestic terrorist organization.

And to think I was the founding member and president of my law school chapter.  (Don't tell fattie, he'd never believe it).

Yeesh GIFs - Find & Share on GIPHY

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