• pottedmeat7910@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    How much is that recusal worth to you?

    Is it, say, “new RV” worth it? Or perhaps, maybe it’s “buy my mother a house” worth it?

    Clarence is for sale, so let the bidding begin!

  • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    the court is openly, blatantly corrupt. I see no reason that should stop for this case in particular. being said, I also see no reason they would rule in favor of trump. he made a mistake that not many power brokers survive: he’s depending on favors he’s done for the justices in the past in getting them nominated rather than on what he can do for them in the future, and he’s essentially said out loud that he’s gonna consolidate all power including theirs in the office of PotUS if elected again. They’ll let him coup us, but I don’t think they’ll let him coup them and I highly doubt they’ll declare the president completely above the law while the sitting president is a democrat.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      11 months ago

      I highly doubt they’ll declare the president completely above the law while the sitting president is a democrat.

      I’m imagining a scenario where they do that and then Biden immediately orders drive strikes on the Republican justices, because why the hell not?

    • samus12345@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I highly doubt they’ll declare the president completely above the law while the sitting president is a democrat.

      That wouldn’t stop them because they know that good is dumb.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      11 months ago

      I honestly don’t think the more recent “conservative” additions save gorsich actually would care if he did. They’d ride off rich into the sunset as “prestigious” SCOTUS members.

      • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        if they were gonna retire rich on billionaire donor money they would have already done it. look at Corrupt Clarence: as long as he’s sitting on the bench he can count on thousand dollar/day vacations and he knows that. As soon as he has nothing to offer his billionaire owners they’ll pull up stakes and move on the bribing the next justice.

        • Asafum@feddit.nl
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          11 months ago

          The way current day bribery political connections work is that you work on someone’s behalf and then when you’re done working in government you get a position as a board member, director position, whatever, from the people you helped profit so they can give you a gigantic salary as compensation for your favors for them without the government being able to do anything about it. I don’t think any politician stays in the game for the free trips.

          • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            with scotus it seems like they don’t ever bother with the veil of delayed rewards anymore. someone gives a justice a pile of money, that justice rules in their favor, and as long as neither of them says “hey, that pile of money is definitely to buy rulings and not as a gift freely given to someone who just happens to have the final say in the law of the land” then no one can ‘prove’ bribery. the fact is at this point they’re mocking us openly.

    • chakan2@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      sitting president is a democrat

      That would matter if the sitting president had some conviction beyond the status quo. He doesn’t, and if they declare Trump is above the law, Biden will staunchly refuse to take advantage of that power…because, reasons.

      The D’s inaction is what got us here. I don’t expect that to change in the next 12 months.

      • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        there’s an inherent conflict in democrats where they want to be politicians while appearing to be above politics and what it ends up meaning is abandoning any position that’s challenged by the opposition as “political”, “divisive” or “agenda-driven”. they’re rich, coddled cowards.

        with that being said, I feel like in most cases Rs are politically adroit enough to pull the ladder up behind them even when they don’t think Ds will bother trying to climb it.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        he didn’t recuse himself when his wife was on the docket… so why would he recuse himself from trump?

          • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Can we at least update the description of Supreme Court Justice to remove impartiality and instead say something to the effect of ‘forces their will on people less fortunate?’

              • Jeff@lemm.ee
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                11 months ago

                I like the term ‘lawyer-deciders’ because what do you call a bus full of lawyers at the bottom of a lake?

                • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  A good start?

                  That’s not really fair, though. A lot of lawyers are fighting the good fight, such as environmental lawyers, those of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU and various other organizations who provide pro bono representation to those who couldn’t afford a good lawyer otherwise.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I’m gonna put the odds at roughly 1000:1 that he does.

      Actually, there are betting sites for this that would be, supposedly, more accurate than I am at creating those odds. What are the odds on the betting sites?

      Edit: I’m not finding the odds…

      Edit 2: Apparently there are 5:1 odds on if he takes a plea bargain. I would have set those a bit higher since he is willing to settle cases, but I doubt he’s willing to accept jail time of any sort.

  • books@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    His wife was involved in Jan 6th.

    If he doesn’t, democracy is dead. Even if he votes against trump. Legitimacy is gone.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        This is how our constitution works tho. He’s talking about the institutions that make up our specific democracy

        • Nudding@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Call it what you will, just don’t call it democracy when the will of the minority is exerted on the majority.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            My dude the USA is a representative democracy.

            That’s the way that kind of government sometimes functions, which is why we need strong institutions.

            • MUHn4d0@feddit.de
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              11 months ago

              It is not representative tho. I learned in school that a principle of democracy is the equal vote. Each vote counts the same. In the USA each vote counts for a random amount and the people actually electing the president are not even bound to the election results. With the supreme court being this openly corrupt the path to a dictatorship is not that far off.

              • SCB@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                I learned in school that a principle of democracy is the equal vote.

                In a direct democracy, this is true. In a representative democracy, this is not.

                In the USA each vote counts for a random amount

                It isn’t random, and the amount is absolutely gamed in favor of a certain party, which is, again, why we need strong institutions.

                • Tavarin@lemmy.ca
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                  11 months ago

                  The president isn’t voted on as part of the representatives, the office of the president is a separate vote and is supposed to be a direct vote. But the number of electors for each state has not kept up with each state’s population, which has fucked up the power of presidential votes.

                • pelotron
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                  11 months ago

                  Normalize saying “Republicans” instead of “a certain party”

        • Nudding@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Americans all like, we brought democracy to the developing world! Y’all don’t have democracy at home, chill.

      • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        Democracy just means that the power ultimately rests in the hands of the people. The fact that we vote for our representatives, meaning it’s ultimately up to us, makes us a democracy. The electoral system is not contradictory to a democracy.

            • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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              11 months ago

              FPTP voting allows a candidate who is highly unpopular by any measure to win over a more popular candidate. Single-member districts allow a party to win a fraction of seats in a legislature that is vastly greater than the fraction of the population who voted for them. Bullshit like the Electoral College just straight up counts some votes more than others.

              That’s just the stuff that’s above board. With gerrymandering, voter suppression, and just plain rigging the vote, anything is possible.

              • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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                11 months ago

                The fact that there are flaws in our democracy does not make it not a democracy.

                There are essentially only 4 forms of government, based on the ultimate source of power:

                1. Autocracy - an individual
                2. Oligarchy - a few
                3. Democracy - the people
                4. Anarchy - no one

                Even in the case where there are flaws, ultimately the power resides in the people. If we all banded together and voted for someone who would get rid of gerrymandering and the FPTP voting system, and all that BS, we could make it happen. Which means we are still a democracy.

                • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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                  11 months ago

                  At some point a democracy is so flawed it stops being a democracy in any meaningful sense. The stuff I mentioned exists on a spectrum that includes “democracy” in Russia. They have votes but nobody thinks they have democracy. Hence my original comment.

                  If you define democracy as a state where people can change things if they all band together, then every country in history has been a democracy because people have always had the theoretical option to band together and overthrow their government by force.

  • Cowbee@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    When has Clarence Thomas ever done the right thing? When do people think he will ever act properly under pressure?

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Clarence Thomas: “Fuck you, I don’t have to answer to anyone. I’m a Supreme Court Justice. I am the law.”

  • samus12345@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    “Recuse yourself!”

    “And if I don’t?”

    “We’ll furrow our brows and be very concerned!”