Ginni Thomas and Mark Meadows, doin' the Q on the phone

[bob]

Is not the only remedy here impeachment?

That’s my understanding.

Removal following a conviction following impeachment, but, basically, yes.

And that's not going to happen. Heck, I'd be surprised if the House let any impeachment resolution get out of committee. Because everyone can count to 67. And owns a calendar with November 8 on it.

And, sure, complaints can be filed against Thomas, but they're essentially toothless.

There's no magic tool the judiciary could use to police a sitting SCOTUS justice. (And ditto with a bar; there's no requirement that a federal judge must be a lawyer.)

[Kendra]

[filly]

Let's please stop the overblown hyperbole. In 2020 we had an election and Biden was elected president despite some of the right trying to stop it. Democratic caucuses control both houses though not strongly. The fact that some Democratic senators are opposing their own caucus is not an end to democracy, it is the sloppiness of democracy. If they were required to vote how their party tells them, well, that would be a democracy problem.

Certainly, things are really messy right now and there are forces that want to reverse the gains we have made over the last 60 years but our 200+ year journey has never been a conflict-free one. Was democracy better in the 50s when many people of color could not vote and groups like House Un-American Activities Committee were stomping our freedoms in the name of freedom?

The US is generally rated as a "Deficient Democracy" by most standards and organizations these days. It could certainly be worse, and I fear it will be if Republicans take control in 2022. I believe what we are currently experiencing goes further than mere sloppiness.

I don't think it's hyperbole. I think our democracy is broken and dysfunctional. I think it is careening deeper and deeper into autocracy at a frightening rate. As in, if we continue at this rate, there will be no fair elections on the federal level by 2030, and few on the state level. I think we can stop the fall and get it back, but yeah, I agree with Slim (who may have been listening to me on this topic too much over the years! )

I don't think it's hyperbole nor overblown hyperbole either. I cannot vote via absentee ballot because of Texas's White Wing legislature and Governor. I have fewer rights here than women in other states. My Democratic congresswoman is being taken away from me by Wing Wing gerrymandering and I will be in a Congressional District where the QOP nut will win. I guess one's opinion on this is influenced by how much your rights have been taken away. Those who think it's no biggie: just wait until it happens to you.

[AndyinPA]

I guess one's opinion on this is influenced by how much your rights have been taken away. Those who think it's no biggie: just wait until it happens to you.

(Above post.)

That's the way it happened in Germany.

[andersweinstein]

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Filly, I luvs your new horsie!

[Kendra]

[Lani]

I guess one's opinion on this is influenced by how much your rights have been taken away. Those who think it's no biggie: just wait until it happens to you.

(Above post.)

That's the way it happened in Germany.

And other countries as well.

Been watching this for decades. Remember the saying that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it? (Yeah, I'm a downer. Also, a realist.)

[neeneko]

Been watching this for decades. Remember the saying that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it? (Yeah, I'm a downer. Also, a realist.)

Even downier : learning from history is exactly what has happened, just not the lessons we would like.

[Kendra]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congre ... -rcna21644

WASHINGTON — Shortly after the 2020 election, Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent an email to an aide to a prominent House conservative saying she would have nothing to do with his group until his members go “out in the streets,” a congressional source familiar with the exchange told NBC News.

Thomas told an aide to incoming Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks, R-Ind., that she was more aligned with the far-right House Freedom Caucus, whose leaders just two months later would lead the fight in Congress to overturn the results of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

The RSC was long representative of the most conservative House members, but in the past several years, it has been replaced by the tea party-driven Freedom Caucus.

Thomas wrote to the aide that Freedom Caucus members were tougher than RSC members, were in the fight and had then-President Donald Trump’s back, according to the source familiar with the email contents. Until she saw RSC members “out in the streets” and in the fight, she said, she would not help the RSC, the largest caucus of conservatives on Capitol Hill.

[Suranis]

I guess one's opinion on this is influenced by how much your rights have been taken away. Those who think it's no biggie: just wait until it happens to you.

(Above post.)

That's the way it happened in Germany.

And other countries as well.

Been watching this for decades. Remember the saying that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it? (Yeah, I'm a downer. Also, a realist.)

In fact, just looking at Germany all the time is a bad idea, becasue the Way Fascism developed in Germany is unique. It develops different ways in every country. Just focusing on Germany will mean you will miss signs that did not happen in Germany. I've often said that Bloatfield had more in common with Mussolini than The Austrian Artist.

As Foggy has said. Hitler was a guy who spent the 20s fighting communists in the beerhalls. He was actually a reasonably tough customer and he had actually been in a war. Completely different character than the Soft Sack of Sh...

American Fascism is progressing through the incremental efforts of several different groups over the course of decades. The groups all have different objectives but they agree that places like Russia is the Model. And they have been putting people on the courts, and positions of power, for literally decades.

[pipistrelle]

[Kendra]

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/2 ... n-00020675

Ginni Thomas’ West Wing contacts raise new questions for another Trump ally: John Eastman
The Jan. 6 select committee has evidence that Eastman expected Justice Clarence Thomas to back his dubious legal theory to block Joe Biden's victory.

Do read.

[Volkonski]

[Chilidog]

so.

Does the following statute apply to Supreme Court justices?

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/455

The key is the following definition:

The term “judge of the United States” includes judges of the courts of appeals, district courts, Court of International Trade and any court created by Act of Congress, the judges of which are entitled to hold office during good behavior.

i would argue that since the number of SCOTUS justices is controlled by Congress, and the Constitution states: “The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour.”

That the above statute applies to the individual justices.

but what do i know.

[bob]

Does the following statute apply to Supreme Court justices?

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/455

Yes, but ultimately no.

Does it apply to U.S. Supreme Court justices? Yes.

Who gets to decide if it is applicable? Why, the justice being questioned!

In the infamous duck-hunting case, Scalia concluded his impartiality could not reasonably be questioned. And there's no mechanism for the rest of the court to overrule the "questioned" justice.

[RVInit]

https://pressrun.media/p/media-sleepwal ... thomas?s=w

[Suranis]

Ya they would rather make hysterical and completly insincere comments about how awful Biden was.

[Kendra]

Fox News/Business mentions so far this morning

Virginia Thomas: 0
Will Smith: 33

[Kriselda Gray]

I think this is the thread in question "Clarence and Ginni Thomas":

viewtopic.php?p=93338&hilit=clarence#p93338

I'm fine with multiple threads, and I'm fine with combined threads. But if you do combine, I would suggest a simpler title (the Woodward/Costa inclusion has already been overtaken by the hugeness of this story).

Sorry to make work

Um, I've literally been asleep for the vast majority of the last few days, may I ask what the WoodwardCosta thing is? Thank you!!

[p0rtia]

I think this is the thread in question "Clarence and Ginni Thomas":

viewtopic.php?p=93338&hilit=clarence#p93338

I'm fine with multiple threads, and I'm fine with combined threads. But if you do combine, I would suggest a simpler title (the Woodward/Costa inclusion has already been overtaken by the hugeness of this story).

Sorry to make work

Um, I've literally been asleep for the vast majority of the last few days, may I ask what the WoodwardCosta thing is? Thank you!!

Woodward and Costa broke the story about the Thomas - Meadows texts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... ows-texts/

Virginia Thomas urged White House chief to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, texts show
In messages to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the weeks after Election Day, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called Biden’s victory “the greatest Heist of our History” and told him that President Donald Trump should not concede.
By Bob Woodward and Robert Costa

[Kendra]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... mas-trump/

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection will seek an interview with Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according a source familiar with the investigation.

Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, has drawn scrutiny for her text messages to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in which she repeatedly pressed Meadows to work aggressively to overturn the election and keep President Donald Trump in power in a series of urgent exchanges in the critical weeks after the vote, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.

The messages — 29 in all — reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Thomas, a conservative activist, and Trump’s top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to negate the election results.

Claim of executive privilege coming in 5...4...3...2...1...

[Jim]

Someone should mention to Ginnie that if the white supremacists now running the pub party get their way, she'll have to divorce Judge Thomas. Today's pubs hate mixed marriages.

[raison de arizona]

Someone should mention to Ginnie that if the white supremacists now running the pub party get their way, she'll have to divorce Judge Thomas. Today's pubs hate mixed marriages.

Oh I suspect they'll be fine with an exception when it is in their self-interest.

[Kriselda Gray]

Woodward and Costa broke the story about the Thomas - Meadows texts.

Thanks, p0rtia!