https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-secretly-attended-koch-brothers-donor-events-scotus
Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court.
Imagine the outcry if instead this was a liberal justice at a Soros donor event. You'd have so many antisemitic dog whistles that it would attract every canine in the tristate area.
I really don't understand how anyone who likes logical consistency can tolerate Republicans. The hypocrisy is mind boggling.
... An "in group" that is protected by laws but not bound by them and an "out group" that is bound by the laws but not protected by them.
This is a (paraphrased) description of the conservative world-view that I saw the other day (sorry I don't remember who to attribute) here on Lemmy. Anyway it sure seems to track with their hypocrisy.
Wilhoit's Law
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect
It’s the same as saying “namely”, or “that is to say”. In this instance it means, “and that one proposition is..”
The missing bit of context to make it logically consistent is that they think we all live in a hierarchy (social, class, gender, race etc) in which the rules apply differently to folks lower in it than they do to folks above them.
If you accept that as your premise, everything about their behavior is logically consistent- except for the part about inventing a magical hierarchy that only exists in their agreement that it does, in which they are your superiors and it is their right to tell you what to do but never vice-versa.
If you look at it in this light, when they howl at democrats for breaking rules they don't think apply to republicans, they aren't invoking anything like a set of shared rules applying to everyone, they're invoking the hierarchy and they think they're putting people in their rightful places (never mind that it's colossally arrogant and entitled to assume you're here to rule over your inferiors when there's no agreement that anyone here is anyone's superior)
There always has to be a bigger fish
I recommend the youtube series "The Alt-Right Playbook"
It suddenly makes Conservative Ideology make sense, not in that it's a good ideology mind you, but it makes it easy to understand why they are the way they are... What goes through their heads...
They see the world very differently from the rest of us.
I hate having to resort to "Us/Them", but they made the game that way, not us..... Yes I'm aware of the irony of that statement.
To add to this, the GOP are the smart ones who know how to acquire power. The capability to gain the office is what qualifies them for it.
Do you want the smart people to lead, or do you want the ones who wring their hands about the rules?
My response to this would be the Douglas Adams idea, anyone who wants to lead that badly should in no way be allowed to do so.
As long as I’ve paid attention to politics, republicans have been massive hypocrites and have not give a damn when called out.
That's why "They go low, we go high" has always been a joke and I was shocked when Obama was serious and not just "saying that"... That's the kind of naivety that we don't need in a battle against Right Wing Fascists
It's because in the heavily divided Senate, there is no way he would be removed, and failing to remove him after impeachment would be taken as tacit approval of his corruption.
Democrats are just not touching that with a ten foot pole.
All someone has to do if there's any backlash is to say "both sides" and people will immediately dismiss it.
I was just reading an article yesterday that basically said, the more this court reveals itself to be a partisan tool, the more likely it is that its rulings will be disregarded. After all, the court has no enforcement power. All it can do is render its opinion.
I don't think it will so much be the death of the republic as it will be an evolution. Circumstances change. People and institutions adapt.
He needs to permanently recuse himself from every case ever. This guy is a fucking mockery of the American Justice System.
David Koch funds a lot of PBS shows so I guess it makes sense he’d have to schmooze but you’d also think Ken Burns, of all the world’s documentarians, would be able to find funding without much effort.
At some point the shit mountain has to get so big impeaching him is the only option. Right?
Republicans have to give a shit about ethics and the rule of law first, or be voted out. I wouldn't hold my breath.
As long as Republicans hold any amount of power, they will abuse it to protect their own no matter how corrupt, unethical, or illegal the actions. They know that if they break lockstep even a little bit, their unpopular authoritarian pyramid scheme will crumble.
"We investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing."
See also: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-acquitted-impeachment-texas-attorney-general/
The Ken Paxton thing is especially telling. He was impeached by Republicans, but the second the impeachment started generating national coverage, they backed off and said it was fine.
ken paxton is a slimy little cunt that shouldn’t be underestimated. i have no doubt behind closed doors he pulled every dirty trick in the book. this is the kind of person that finds and keeps dirt on anyone that might try to destroy him.
and when you have 2/3 the politicians in your pocket, it’s easy to strong arm enough of the other 1/3 to stfu and keep their heads down.
it wasn’t like republicans saw the limelight was on the case and decided to play nice. quite the opposite. the reps that started this whole fight are establishment republicans trying to get their party in the people’s good graces enough to save their fucking party in 2024.
the dumbass think tanks don’t get that (or rather, think they can work with that) and have been performing actions that add nail after nail into their coffin.
The Eleventh Commandment was a phrase used by President of the United States Ronald Reagan during his 1966 campaign for Governor of California. The Commandment reads:
Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.
Republicans used to revere St. Ronnie but these days he'd never make it through a primary.
I mean, let's be honest here - none of the gifts, favors, or special treatment Thomas has received has changed his decisions. He was always going to pick the most reactionary, oligarch-friendly position. No one has ever said, "The court looks pretty split on this issue, and Clarence Thomas may be the deciding vote."
If you're going to bribe a Justice or try to sway the Court, you pick a moderate. You don't pay the Kool-Aid Man to charge through walls, it's just what he does.
I stopped waiting for King Louie to "Say the thing" that gets his head lopped off...
For the record I'm speaking in metaphor, this is in no way a threat or call to arms.
That’s no secret, he’s a member of that whole party. I’d be actually surprised if someone proved he didn’t.
The article referenced: https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-secretly-attended-koch-brothers-donor-events-scotus
Saved you a click.
Yes, and I couldn't get it to load without going to propublica.org directly. So I linked it directly, to help others. There's still a few flaky things about the fediverse, and since I'd gone to the trouble to find the article, I figured to save others a few clicks.
Huh, odd. I was mostly wondering if you were some weird bot or something since it was literally the exact same link!
Team Red controls the house, and the house would have to be the body to start impeachment hearings. Why would Team Red remove a judge who is being bribed by Ream Red backers and decides cases in favor of Team Red?
The US "checks and balances" system was never designed to deal with this kind of problem.
The executive and legislative branches can act.
The House has a narrow margin and the rules of the house are subject to change. The “Speaker” is weak and that can be used as leverage.
The executive can't do anything. Half the legislative branch is controlled by Team Red. Team Red would have to be willing to hand a loss to Team Red for there to be any accountability. A weak leader is going to be much less willing than a strong leader to hand a loss to Team Red because it would be the end of his leadership, so without an election handing over control of 2/3 of the government to Team Blue, there can be no accountability.
And, even then, with the majorities required for impeachment and removal, you'd have to convince a significant fraction of Team Red to defect and take a loss, when they can avoid a loss by just holding the line.
The US system's checks and balances are broken and unable to deal with this scenario.
Not setting a limit on the number of Supreme Court judges was an oversight, not a clever trick they came up with to allow the executive to collude with the senate to put an unlimited number of judges on the Supreme Court.
No, it wasn't. They were not stupid, and this is really gonna blow your mind:
They can also reduce the number of judges instead of just letting it baloon infinitely.
Sure, but you can't remove a judge except by impeachment. So, if you said the supreme court was now 3 judges you'd effectively be getting rid of judges without using impeachment. Whether that's legal or not would probably be decided in court, which would get challenged all the way up to... the supreme court.
The law is clear, a Justice can only be removed through impeachment. If Congress were to reduce the total number of seats as has happened a few times historically there simply would not be a new Justice appointed after one passes or resigns.