Day: December 19, 2023

Closing Thought–19Dec23

I love whiners….like Justice Thomas of SCOTUS….it seems he does not think the judges are paid enough….

ProPublica’s deep dive into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ financial dealings continued on Monday with a new report that describes Thomas as under financial strain in early 2000 “just as he was developing his relationships with a set of wealthy benefactors.” It cites interviews and documents in describing the conversation that allegedly took place in January 2000 as Thomas returned home from a high-end Georgia beach resort where he gave the keynote at a conservative conference.

Friends tell the site Thomas had borrowed $267,000 from a friend to purchase an RV the month prior. He sat beside GOP Florida Rep. Cliff Stearns on the flight home and allegedly discussed his frustration with his $173,600 salary—more than $300,000 in today’s dollars—saying Congress should raise the justices’ pay. If they failed to, Thomas predicted one or more justices would leave within a year or so. As ProPublica puts it, “the lawmaker left the conversation worried that Thomas might resign” and subsequently sent Thomas a letter vowing to look into a bill that would raise Supreme Court salaries. ProPublica has a copy of the letter, and reports Stearns did undertake an effort to raise the issue.

ProPublica reports that in other conversations around the time, Thomas discussed killing the ban on justices giving paid speeches. There was no substantial raise or end to the ban, but ProPublica says the conversations give context to what it has previously reported came next: “Thomas accept[ing] a stream of gifts from friends and acquaintances that appears to be unparalleled in the modern history of the Supreme Court,” though it notes there is “no evidence the justice ever raised the specter of resigning with [those] wealthy benefactors.”

What a whiny titty baby!

He has been sucking at the taxpayers teat for 30 years….and in all that time he has been finding his supplemental pay in  plain brown envelopes from his wealthy patrons.

Move on if you are not happy with your pay….we can do better.

He also said a couple others would leave….I say let the corrupt political hack bastards move on.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Just What Makes Trump’s Policies Attractive?

I have asked myself that question many times….I cannot see where a normal rational person could find anything Trump has to offer appealing in the least.

But that is just me…..and I do not fall for fear mongering and race baiting.

Now I read an article that could explain this phenom somewhat…..

Today I want to suggest why so many working-class Americans are attracted to a sociopathic liar who advocates neofascism.

IN 2010, A MAJORITY OF THE SUPREME COURT decided in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission that corporations are people under the First Amendment, entitled to freedom of speech. Therefore, said the court, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (commonly referred to as the McCain-Feingold Act), which had limited spending by corporations on political advertisements, violated the Constitution and was no longer the law of the land.

Yet as a practical matter, freedom of speech is the freedom to be heard, and most citizens’ freedom to be heard has been reduced as big corporations with deep pockets get the loudest political voice.

Nowhere did the five members in the majority acknowledge the imbalance of power between ordinary citizens and big corporations able to bribe politicians with campaign donations. In practice, the “freedom of speech” granted by the Supreme Court to big corporations has drowned out the speech of ordinary people — especially those without college degrees who had been losing economic ground for decades.

Nowhere did the five members in the majority acknowledge the imbalance of power between ordinary citizens and big corporations able to bribe politicians with campaign donations. In practice, the “freedom of speech” granted by the Supreme Court to big corporations has drowned out the speech of ordinary people — especially those without college degrees who had been losing economic ground for decades.

There is no countervailing power. By the 2016 campaign cycle, corporations and Wall Street contributed $34 to political campaigns for every $1 donated by labor unions and all public interest organizations combined. (And the richest one-hundredth of 1 percent of Americans accounted for 40 percent of all personal donations.)

Citizens United opened the floodgates to big money, but big money was already polluting American politics. The flow really began in 1971, when future Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell wrote a memo for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, urging corporate America to finance a massive lobbying operation in Washington,

WHAT HAVE BIG CORPORATIONS and the ultra-wealthy received for all their money? Among other things:

https://www.rawstory.com/why-so-many-americans-feel-powerless-and-some-are-turning-to-trump-s-neofascism/

Whatcha think?  Is this characterization accurate?

But before you answer….a little something to think about….read it and be amazed.

Donald Trump believes in eugenics. He really does. Of course, his understanding of it is purely based upon his own belief in his superior genes and good “German blood.” He’s said it many times in public:

…

Trump’s out campaigning in earnest now as the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary are just weeks away. And if anyone thought he was going to soft-peddle the “Hitleresque” rhetoric, they were way off base. His basic stump speech is all about banning immigration by those who don’t “share our ideology” (whatever he means by that), and rounding people up here in the U.S. and putting them in camps. He’s not being subtle about who he’s talking about.

…

Trump is always looking for a way to thrill his followers with a new outrage so it’s easy to say he’s just putting on a show. But I think he means it. He’s very bitter and angry at half of America for not loving him unconditionally and his thirst for revenge is overwhelming. It’s not about ideology, it’s personal. But the program that he’s contemplating as his instrument to pay back all those who’ve refused to bow and scrape before him is a full-on fascist agenda. And he knows it (the man watches a lot of TV.) He just believes it will work for him.

https://www.salon.com/2023/12/18/echoes-hitler–and-maga-hears-it-loud-and-clear/

This is a person that has about a 40% approval rating among GOPers.

Are amazed yet?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”