SCOTUS

[Sparko]

What is the appropriate redress for corrupt rulings shown to have been ethically impermissible? We need to build a list and find some way to get relief. Extraordinary corruption.

There is none. That’s exactly why all of this is so scary. There is no redress for the parties to the cases. There is no consequence to the justice or the patron(s).

Clerk: The people are revolting! Emperor: You're telling me. I had to shut the curtains.

[zsn]

What is the appropriate redress for corrupt rulings shown to have been ethically impermissible? We need to build a list and find some way to get relief. Extraordinary corruption.

There is none. That’s exactly why all of this is so scary. There is no redress for the parties to the cases. There is no consequence to the justice or the patron(s).

Lock. Him. Up.

If Merrick Garland has any integrity or courage he’d throw the book at Clarence Thomas for falsely filing required disclosure forms. I’m sure there’s some obscure law(s) somewhere that Thomas broke. A defense of “I didn’t know about the law” would be a laughable for a SCOTUS justice to make!!

Garland could walk away in a blaze of glory!!

[MICHHAWK]

there is nothing sexier than supreme court pillow talk.

[Shirley]

"Alternative facts" Kellyanne Conway was in on the scheme too? No way!

[Overlander]

Ted Cruz is a turd.

[Shirley]

Ted Cruz is a turd.

He's a pos, if you ask me.

Former Senator Al Franken:

"Here's the thing you have to understand about Ted Cruz," Franken wrote in the book, an excerpt of which was published by Axios. "I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz."

[Shirley]

This could be interesting. Frontline tomorrow night, 5/9/23, on PBS.

As controversy erupts around Clarence and Ginni Thomas, FRONTLINE tells the inside story of their path to power. This investigation from veteran filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team traces how race, power and controversy collide in the rise of the Supreme Court justice and his wife and how the couple has reshaped American law and politics.

Ginny was a mistake, and her parents were older, devoted "conservatives", who supported the John Birch Society, a group of rich, right-wing fascists* who were a thing in the middle of the 20th century. Her mother was a supporter of and leader in Phyllis Schlafly's Christo-fascist, anti-Equal Rights Amendment movement. So, it would be easy to feel sorry for Ginni, if it weren't for her efforts to prevent the peaceful transfer of power by supporting the republican Trump insurrectionists after Biden won the election, among other things.

*The Coors brothers were very active in the John Birch Society. It was the initial reason I started boycotting Coors beer in the early '70s, but that was easy, because it also about the time I developed a preference for beers that taste like beer, and not water.

[Shirley]

May 23, 2023-Ideologues on the Supreme Court cloak their right-wing views in originalism. Biden should call their bluff by invoking the 14th amendment and forcing the Supreme Court to either side with him or go against the clear language of that amendment.



Amendment XIV

Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

[KUTradition]

sigh…

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/2 ... industries.

[jfish26]

[KUTradition]

something about apples falling from trees…

[Shirley]

Did someone mention Anne M. Gorsuch?

Not long ago I mentioned that I had been boycotting Coors beer since the 1970s. Among the original reasons was because the Coors Brothers were known as Libertarian fascists who strongly supported the John Birch Society, (which can be thought of as an early "militia"-type group of the day), they had a reputation for discriminating against Mexican-Americans, and they were ardent anti-environmentalists.

As detailed in the article below from 1981, Anne M. Gorsuch was among the people from Colorado who gained positions in the Reagan Admin., along with her future boss, Interior Sec. James Watt.

When he was tapped for Interior, Mr. Watt was president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a public interest group that has intervened on behalf of energy developers seeking to open public land to private development. Mr. Coors founded the organization in 1977 and has subsidized it heavily. The Mountain States Legal Foundation was notorious for filing lawsuits against any and all environmental measures in an effort to delay and ultimately end efforts to protect and preserve the environment in their area of influence. That area grew substantially as a result of Watt, Gorsuch, et al ascending to the federal government, thanks to Saint Ronald Reagan, who was nothing if not totally willing to do whatever the already rich wanted him to do, just like republicans today. (Recalling the time and typing their names makes me want to turn my head and spit.)

THE 'COLORADO MAFIA' PUTS ITS STAMP ON THE GOVERNMENT

By William E. Schmidt
Sept. 6, 1981

WHEN Ronald Reagan began putting together his Administration last year, many were surprised by the number of appointments going to Colorado Republicans. First there was James G. Watt, the Denver lawyer picked as Interior Secretary. Then Mr. Reagan tapped Bob Burford, a third-generation rancher, to serve under Mr. Watt as director of the Bureau of Land Management. Finally, there was Anne M. Gorsuch, a Denver attorney who had served with Mr. Burford in the state legislature. She was named to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

Not only were they all from the same sparsely populated state, but the trio Mr. Reagan had chosen to oversee the management and protection of natural resources, public lands and environment were ideological soulmates: fiercely conservative proponents of less Federal intervention, more power to state and local governments and a freer hand for private enterprise. Indeed, the three were quickly dubbed ''the Colorado mafia'' and it's widely believed that the man behind the scenes was none other than Joseph Coors, the conservative brewer from Golden, Colo., who is one of Mr. Reagan's closest confidants. ''If there is such a thing as a C olorado mafia,'' said a Republican politician in Denver, ''then there is no doubt that Joe Coors is the godfather.''

But even Mr. Coors will have little power to influence the controversy surrounding Mr. Watt. Last week, there was yet more potential trouble bubbling up, with the disclosure that Mr. Watt was considering reversing a Carter Administration ruling and allowing strip mining on land adjacent to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Environmentalists feared that such a decision could lead to much more extensive development all over the West. Mrs. Gorsuch may also be increasingly thrust into the spotlight. Democratic Congressmen and environmentalists charged last week that, despite her assurances to the contrary, her agency is drafting legislation that would severely weaken the Clean Air Act. An agency spokesman denied the charges, but Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who heads the subcommittee that will consider revisions in the law, accused the Administration of ''talking out of both sides of its mouth.''

Mr. Coors, for his part, generally avoids publicity. He politely declines to discuss a role in the elevation of Mr. Watt and the others; rather, he has noted through a spokesman that he was pleased at Colorado's getting three of its own into such jobs. But most Colorado observers believe that Mr. Watt was a clear first choice of Mr. Coors. When he was tapped for Interior, Mr. Watt was president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a public interest group that has intervened on behalf of energy developers seeking to open public land to private development. Mr. Coors founded the organization in 1977 and has subsidized it heavily. While the ties between Mr. Coors and Mrs. Gorsuch and Mr. Burford are less clear, both appointees were allied with a rock-ribbed conservative faction in the Colorado legislature that wrested control from more moderate Republicans in 1978.

[...]

[KUTradition]

smells very deep-stateish

[Shirley]

smells very deep-stateish

Not when "small government" fascists do it.

[KUTradition]

smells very deep-stateish

Not when "small government" fascists do it.

right

[Shirley]

[Shirley]

Today In: Blow me down:

[Shirley]

[twocoach]

Did someone mention Anne M. Gorsuch?

Not long ago I mentioned that I had been boycotting Coors beer since the 1970s. Among the original reasons was because the Coors Brothers were known as Libertarian fascists who strongly supported the John Birch Society, (which can be thought of as an early "militia"-type group of the day), they had a reputation for discriminating against Mexican-Americans, and they were ardent anti-environmentalists.

As detailed in the article below from 1981, Anne M. Gorsuch was among the people from Colorado who gained positions in the Reagan Admin., along with her future boss, Interior Sec. James Watt.

When he was tapped for Interior, Mr. Watt was president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a public interest group that has intervened on behalf of energy developers seeking to open public land to private development. Mr. Coors founded the organization in 1977 and has subsidized it heavily. The Mountain States Legal Foundation was notorious for filing lawsuits against any and all environmental measures in an effort to delay and ultimately end efforts to protect and preserve the environment in their area of influence. That area grew substantially as a result of Watt, Gorsuch, et al ascending to the federal government, thanks to Saint Ronald Reagan, who was nothing if not totally willing to do whatever the already rich wanted him to do, just like republicans today. (Recalling the time and typing their names makes me want to turn my head and spit.)

THE 'COLORADO MAFIA' PUTS ITS STAMP ON THE GOVERNMENT

By William E. Schmidt
Sept. 6, 1981

WHEN Ronald Reagan began putting together his Administration last year, many were surprised by the number of appointments going to Colorado Republicans. First there was James G. Watt, the Denver lawyer picked as Interior Secretary. Then Mr. Reagan tapped Bob Burford, a third-generation rancher, to serve under Mr. Watt as director of the Bureau of Land Management. Finally, there was Anne M. Gorsuch, a Denver attorney who had served with Mr. Burford in the state legislature. She was named to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

Not only were they all from the same sparsely populated state, but the trio Mr. Reagan had chosen to oversee the management and protection of natural resources, public lands and environment were ideological soulmates: fiercely conservative proponents of less Federal intervention, more power to state and local governments and a freer hand for private enterprise. Indeed, the three were quickly dubbed ''the Colorado mafia'' and it's widely believed that the man behind the scenes was none other than Joseph Coors, the conservative brewer from Golden, Colo., who is one of Mr. Reagan's closest confidants. ''If there is such a thing as a C olorado mafia,'' said a Republican politician in Denver, ''then there is no doubt that Joe Coors is the godfather.''

But even Mr. Coors will have little power to influence the controversy surrounding Mr. Watt. Last week, there was yet more potential trouble bubbling up, with the disclosure that Mr. Watt was considering reversing a Carter Administration ruling and allowing strip mining on land adjacent to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. Environmentalists feared that such a decision could lead to much more extensive development all over the West. Mrs. Gorsuch may also be increasingly thrust into the spotlight. Democratic Congressmen and environmentalists charged last week that, despite her assurances to the contrary, her agency is drafting legislation that would severely weaken the Clean Air Act. An agency spokesman denied the charges, but Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who heads the subcommittee that will consider revisions in the law, accused the Administration of ''talking out of both sides of its mouth.''

Mr. Coors, for his part, generally avoids publicity. He politely declines to discuss a role in the elevation of Mr. Watt and the others; rather, he has noted through a spokesman that he was pleased at Colorado's getting three of its own into such jobs. But most Colorado observers believe that Mr. Watt was a clear first choice of Mr. Coors. When he was tapped for Interior, Mr. Watt was president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a public interest group that has intervened on behalf of energy developers seeking to open public land to private development. Mr. Coors founded the organization in 1977 and has subsidized it heavily. While the ties between Mr. Coors and Mrs. Gorsuch and Mr. Burford are less clear, both appointees were allied with a rock-ribbed conservative faction in the Colorado legislature that wrested control from more moderate Republicans in 1978.

[...]

I just boycott Coors beer (and Budweiser) because their beer tastes like piss water and gives me diarrhea if I drink too much of it.

[Shirley]