Anonymous wrote:The real sin here is that he is a black conservative who is off the liberal plantation. How dare he.

Anonymous wrote:ProPublica is leftist garbage. I read an article by them that strongly implied that landlords should be forced to accept section 8 (aka tenants from hell) because DiScRiMiNaTiOn.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

For decades Clarence Thomas been accepting free gifts from a republican billionaire - including vacations on his yacht, private jet travel, week long stays at a luxury resort in the Adirondacks and other stays at a Texas ranch and 'all men' California retreat. He has not been disclosing any of it. He has not been reporting it even though federal law requires judges, along with other officials, to report many types of gifts they receive.

Thomas showed us what he was during his confirmation hearings. Some transgressions are unforgivable and I pray that George H.W. Bush is spending his afterlife eternity in Hell.

WTF? Total loon. ^^

Anonymous wrote:

Funny how we don't routinely see these ethics violations and lapses on the left side of the judiciary

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Anonymous wrote:The real sin here is that he is a black conservative who is off the liberal plantation. How dare he.

Colin Powell was a black conservative respected by liberals. But he had moral principles.

Anonymous wrote:The real sin here is that he is a black conservative who is off the liberal plantation. How dare he.

Anonymous wrote:There was really something to the premise of "The Pelican Brief"

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile, tens of thousands of government employees turn down gifts, tickets, special events ALL the time because ethics matter to them. But people who complain about the “government “ are here defending this guy. Madness.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The real sin here is that he is a black conservative who is off the liberal plantation. How dare he.

Colin Powell was a black conservative respected by liberals. But he had moral principles.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile, tens of thousands of government employees turn down gifts, tickets, special events ALL the time because ethics matter to them. But people who complain about the “government “ are here defending this guy. Madness.

Yeah, people who haven’t worked for the government have no idea how strict these rules are.

I once heard Norman Mineta tell a story about how, when he was sent to a WWII internment camp as a boy, he brought along his baseball bat as one of his few precious possessions and a way to pass the time with other kids. The guards took away his bat because it supposedly could be used as a weapon. When he was an adult serving in one part or another of government, someone who knew that story sent him the gift of a bat that had been used by one of the baseball greats as a gesture to basically right one small wrong of history. Unfortunately, he had to send it back because its value was above the low threshold for gifts he could accept. At least he had a great punchline for the call he made to the would-be gift-giver: “The government’s taken my bat AGAIN!”

Anonymous wrote:The real sin here is that he is a black conservative who is off the liberal plantation. How dare he.

Anonymous wrote:Cory Doctorow's rundown on the Pro Public story:

Today, Propublica published an expose on the vast fortune in secret gifts bestowed upon Thomas by the billionare GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, who is also one the most significant funders of political campaigns that put business before Thomas and the Supreme Court:

https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow

The story, reported by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski is a masterwork of shoe-leather investigative journalism, drawing on aviation records, social media posts and other "open source" intelligence to expose the illegal, off-the-books "gifts" from a billionaire to an unaccountable Supreme Court justice with a lifetime appointment.

Here are a two of those gifts: a private jet/superyacht jaunt around Indonesia valued at $500,000; and a $500,000 gift to Ginni Thomas's Tea Party group (which pays Ginni Thomas $120,000/year).

On top of that are gifts that are literally priceless: decades' worth of summer vacations at Camp Topridge, Crow's private estate, with its waterfall, great hall, private chefs, 25 fireplaces, thee boathouses, clay tennis court, batting range, 1950s-style soda fountain and full-scale reproduction of Hagrid's hut.

Summer retreats to Topridge allow business leaders like Leonard Leo – the Federalist Society bankroller and mastermind who set Trump up to pack the Supreme Court – to coordinate in private with Thomas:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/29/betcha-cant-eat-just-one/#pwnage

They also allow top execs from PWC, Verizon and [b]other corporations who may have business before the court to establish a warm, collegial relationship with a judge whose decisions can make billions for their employers. In its reporting, Propublica points out that Thomas got to hang out on Crow's superyacht with Mark Paoletta, who was then general counsel for Trump's OMB, and who has opposed any tightening of ethics rules for Supreme Court judges: "there is nothing wrong with ethics or recusals at the Supreme Court."

Crow and Thomas also hobnob together at Crow's Texas ranch, and at the Bohemian Grove, the Bay Area's ultra-luxe retreat for rich creeps. Crow bought Thomas a private superyacht cruise through New Zealand, another through the Greek islands, and a river trip around Savannah, GA. He also traveled around the country on Crow's private jet – even a short private jet trip is valued around $70,000.

Crow also makes many donations on Thomas's behalf, from a $105,000 donation to Yale Law School for the "Justice Thomas Portrait Fund" to paying for a 7 foot tall, 1,800 lb bronze statue of the nun who taught Thomas in the eighth grade, which now stands in a New York Catholic cemetery.

Anonymous wrote:Cory Doctorow's rundown on the Pro Public story:

Today, Propublica published an expose on the vast fortune in secret gifts bestowed upon Thomas by the billionare GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, who is also one the most significant funders of political campaigns that put business before Thomas and the Supreme Court:

https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow

The story, reported by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski is a masterwork of shoe-leather investigative journalism, drawing on aviation records, social media posts and other "open source" intelligence to expose the illegal, off-the-books "gifts" from a billionaire to an unaccountable Supreme Court justice with a lifetime appointment.

Here are a two of those gifts: a private jet/superyacht jaunt around Indonesia valued at $500,000; and a $500,000 gift to Ginni Thomas's Tea Party group (which pays Ginni Thomas $120,000/year).

On top of that are gifts that are literally priceless: decades' worth of summer vacations at Camp Topridge, Crow's private estate, with its waterfall, great hall, private chefs, 25 fireplaces, thee boathouses, clay tennis court, batting range, 1950s-style soda fountain and full-scale reproduction of Hagrid's hut.

Summer retreats to Topridge allow business leaders like Leonard Leo – the Federalist Society bankroller and mastermind who set Trump up to pack the Supreme Court – to coordinate in private with Thomas:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/29/betcha-cant-eat-just-one/#pwnage

They also allow top execs from PWC, Verizon and other corporations who may have business before the court to establish a warm, collegial relationship with a judge whose decisions can make billions for their employers. In its reporting, Propublica points out that Thomas got to hang out on Crow's superyacht with Mark Paoletta, who was then general counsel for Trump's OMB, and who has opposed any tightening of ethics rules for Supreme Court judges: "there is nothing wrong with ethics or recusals at the Supreme Court."

Crow and Thomas also hobnob together at Crow's Texas ranch, and at the Bohemian Grove, the Bay Area's ultra-luxe retreat for rich creeps. Crow bought Thomas a private superyacht cruise through New Zealand, another through the Greek islands, and a river trip around Savannah, GA. He also traveled around the country on Crow's private jet – even a short private jet trip is valued around $70,000.

Crow also makes many donations on Thomas's behalf, from a $105,000 donation to Yale Law School for the "Justice Thomas Portrait Fund" to paying for a 7 foot tall, 1,800 lb bronze statue of the nun who taught Thomas in the eighth grade, which now stands in a New York Catholic cemetery.

Anonymous wrote:The real sin here is that he is a black conservative who is off the liberal plantation. How dare he.