I was in the US at the time of the Anita Hill hearings. It seemed obvious to me that Clarence Thomas was lying through his teeth. The people that elected DT it's on you too.
Thank you, Donald Trump and the Republican Congress, for converting the Supremes to a group so extreme it makes the right wing leader look moderate in contrast. It has strengthened the lack of morality that has been a part of the U.S. Supreme Court for most of my long life.
Supreme court rating is at an all time low (40% approval). Congress approval rating is near an all time low (17% approve, 82% disapprove and 1% no opinion). But in 2022, 100% of Senators (the people who approve Supreme Court nominations) who were running for reelection, were reelected. What does that say about "you the people who put him in control"?
I seem to recall one of many definitions of insanity, namely, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
meme I used to see on Quora: "Donald Trump did one good thing for America. He showed us how many truly horrible people live among us." I am not the most liberal guy in the world, but the trumpers really do seem like a bunch of degenerates. it's funny in a way- they admire the nazis, but the nazis would have gassed most of them.
I am not the most liberal guy in the world, but I am completely flabbergasted that anyone would vote for Trump. Besides being a long-time grifter and a Fascist, he is so incompetent he went broke owning casinos. A casino is like a license to print money! I would not trust Trump to run a junkyard.
What really aggravates me is the liberals have all known about this for decades and said nothing. I have no expectations for the likes of Thomas or Roberts but Kagan and Sotomayor should be telling us the truth.
I'm 81. The older I got the smarter my parents got. My father used to say, money is the root of all evil. At 30 I snickered when he said it. At 81 he looks like a visionary. Get money out of politics and reformation will be a by-product. We won't get it by asking the corruptors. The citizenry knows how to do, we just don't have the will. Too busy chasing our own $$$'s?
Next time, do a little research and vote in COMPETENT, EXPERIENCED people who know what they are doing. And not the ones who want to destroy government altogether.
'A Long Passing', we have 'been knee deep in the Mississippi and the big fool says keep on'. (I am aware that I a dating myself as a baby boomer). It is more than obvious that our moneyed elite have control of both our main political parties and of the Supreme Court. Term limitations and an open strict enforceable ethics standard must be implemented! I am fed up voting for the least dangerous political candidate put up by our main political parties. We need representatives that govern in our true best interests, following the best current medical, economic, scientific, environmental and social information!
Being a retired chemist, I joke that we should kick the lawyers out of government and replace them with scientists. Lawyers and politicians pay little or no attention to facts. They write down their whims as law and hire gunmen to enforce them. if scientists ran things and screwed up , we would do so in a logical and orderly fashion, and it would be easy to see what went wrong and possibly correct it.
I used to trust the SC but, despite the 4 justices who mostly make sense, I no longer do. T...p picked 3 justices--what else can you expect? Of course, Clarence predates all of them; I remember those hearings--devastating! I still believe Anita Hill. We need to change the system somehow.
You can only change the system by changing those who make the rules. Next year, vote your members of Congress OUT OF OFFICE! All of them. Don't worry about the other party, vote them OUT OF OFFICE the following election.
We voters need to start enforcing single term limits on all these assholes, and we can do that by unseating every incumbent in every election.
And don't worry about lack of experience in new candidates. Lack of experience simply means the new people won't be able to screw us as efficiently as those experienced incumbents do.
The problem seems to be that sane, honest people seldom go into politics. Mostly selfserving crooks and fanatics do. Whether it is Dems who want to ban guns or Repubs who hate gay people, they are usually crooks, fanatics or both. By the way I am not a gun enthusiast, I am a history enthusiast. Ask yourself what happened when the US Govt banned Abortion (1870) Booze (1919) and Cannabis (1937). I don't think banning either guns or gays would work any better.
I have to agree that honest people seldom go into politics. I have often wondered if it's the nature of politics that corrupts people or if its the sleaze gene in people that makes them go into politics. Regardless, the problem is attracting decent, honest people into politics.
On that note, let me offer my alternate proposal. Instead of voting for our office holders, let us select them at random as we select people for jury duty and limit each to a single term of 3 years at the end of which, they are guaranteed to return to their old jobs. They would receive the same remuneration as jurors and their employers would be compelled to make up the difference. They would all (president included) be provided with a cubicle in a large office building and share one secretary for every ten officials. No perks. No parking privileges. No security detail. No hot and cold running staffers (male or female). We would then turn the White House and Congress into public museums.
We agree wholeheartedly with everyone who said (each in his/her own words) that the power of the people lies in VOTING. First, stop voting the same liars and hypocrites back into office. PAC money can buy attack ads, but it should not follow that it can also buy votes. Second, support - at the grassroots level - people you can trust. Inform yourself, so you know who they are. Then vote for them. Third, make reforming the Supreme Court a priority, because those people have almost unlimited power. Let's start with term limits (four years max), then set up a watchdog organization with authority to impeach. Why should the highest court in the land be above the law, when no one else is?
Good idea, but easier said than done. The R's are very good at gerrymandering and vote-suppressing, so good that in some places the D's would have to win 2/3 of the votes. And even that might not do. I saw the AG of Texas bragging that he threw out 2,500,000 legal mail-in votes. He said 'they were all from illegals." yeah right. But that county had lots of Black and Hispanic voters. Besides that, some of the D's are as batshit crazy as any R. the Biden bunch won't even say "woman" because they think it might offend the 1 woman in 10,000 who thinks she's a he. And BOTH parties are in thrall to Wall Street, Israel, Big Pharm, Big Ag, etc. We really need to replace both.
I have been a longtime subscriber to Hightower's Lowdown, and love your analyses. I have shared your precious work with everyone I know, and your comments on the Supreme Court (along with so much else) is the most hard-hitting and beautifully expressed I have ever come across. A few blogs ago you referred to countries around the world where authoritarian regimes have sought to take over the judiciary. You mentioned Hungary, I believe, and Poland (perhaps others) but you conspicuously left out Israel. Maybe that was just a casual omission. But now has Gaza is being pummeled, I don't see any of your newsletters addressing this horrible U.S. complicity with the apartheid state of Israel, a major violator of international law and a regime now involved in a genocide. Is one coming? Please say there is. Thank you, I'm a major fan, but believe that justice is not separable. It is universal or it is nothing at all.
Could it be that the policians, short timers and the long-timers, knew of these behind the cloak shinangans and said nothing because they did not want their own unethical actions and behaviors to be exposed?
Today's Charleston Gazette-Mail has an excellent article about MVP by Mike Tony He does so well reporting on the paperwork purgatory and the money hell. Have a great Halloweeeeeeeeen . I am going as Casper the friendly ghost 7- 10 pm costume party
Well Jim, if you buy the beer I will bring a fiddle (no lyre available, though no shortage of liars) 'cause I hope things with the Supreme Court Justices are about to get combustible.
Insulting to weasels. Ditto snakes, rats, and all the other usual suspects. I put them on the same moral level as - oh, I dunno - ticks.
I was in the US at the time of the Anita Hill hearings. It seemed obvious to me that Clarence Thomas was lying through his teeth. The people that elected DT it's on you too.
Thank you, Donald Trump and the Republican Congress, for converting the Supremes to a group so extreme it makes the right wing leader look moderate in contrast. It has strengthened the lack of morality that has been a part of the U.S. Supreme Court for most of my long life.
It's not just Trump. It's you the people who put him in control.
Supreme court rating is at an all time low (40% approval). Congress approval rating is near an all time low (17% approve, 82% disapprove and 1% no opinion). But in 2022, 100% of Senators (the people who approve Supreme Court nominations) who were running for reelection, were reelected. What does that say about "you the people who put him in control"?
I seem to recall one of many definitions of insanity, namely, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
meme I used to see on Quora: "Donald Trump did one good thing for America. He showed us how many truly horrible people live among us." I am not the most liberal guy in the world, but the trumpers really do seem like a bunch of degenerates. it's funny in a way- they admire the nazis, but the nazis would have gassed most of them.
I am laughing.
Yes I agree with what you say about Trump.
He has turned the 'old order' upside down.
Americans now have to deal with their past!
I am not the most liberal guy in the world, but I am completely flabbergasted that anyone would vote for Trump. Besides being a long-time grifter and a Fascist, he is so incompetent he went broke owning casinos. A casino is like a license to print money! I would not trust Trump to run a junkyard.
Bugsy is the only other one,he was Fired!!
What really aggravates me is the liberals have all known about this for decades and said nothing. I have no expectations for the likes of Thomas or Roberts but Kagan and Sotomayor should be telling us the truth.
I'm 81. The older I got the smarter my parents got. My father used to say, money is the root of all evil. At 30 I snickered when he said it. At 81 he looks like a visionary. Get money out of politics and reformation will be a by-product. We won't get it by asking the corruptors. The citizenry knows how to do, we just don't have the will. Too busy chasing our own $$$'s?
BUT the only culture you have in the US is MONEY!
Next time, do a little research and vote in COMPETENT, EXPERIENCED people who know what they are doing. And not the ones who want to destroy government altogether.
Love this little article. There isn’t a branch of our government that Trump with a lot of help from his friends hasn’t managed to corrupt.
'A Long Passing', we have 'been knee deep in the Mississippi and the big fool says keep on'. (I am aware that I a dating myself as a baby boomer). It is more than obvious that our moneyed elite have control of both our main political parties and of the Supreme Court. Term limitations and an open strict enforceable ethics standard must be implemented! I am fed up voting for the least dangerous political candidate put up by our main political parties. We need representatives that govern in our true best interests, following the best current medical, economic, scientific, environmental and social information!
Being a retired chemist, I joke that we should kick the lawyers out of government and replace them with scientists. Lawyers and politicians pay little or no attention to facts. They write down their whims as law and hire gunmen to enforce them. if scientists ran things and screwed up , we would do so in a logical and orderly fashion, and it would be easy to see what went wrong and possibly correct it.
BUT you the people LET this happen.
I used to trust the SC but, despite the 4 justices who mostly make sense, I no longer do. T...p picked 3 justices--what else can you expect? Of course, Clarence predates all of them; I remember those hearings--devastating! I still believe Anita Hill. We need to change the system somehow.
You can only change the system by changing those who make the rules. Next year, vote your members of Congress OUT OF OFFICE! All of them. Don't worry about the other party, vote them OUT OF OFFICE the following election.
We voters need to start enforcing single term limits on all these assholes, and we can do that by unseating every incumbent in every election.
And don't worry about lack of experience in new candidates. Lack of experience simply means the new people won't be able to screw us as efficiently as those experienced incumbents do.
Sounds like a plan
The problem seems to be that sane, honest people seldom go into politics. Mostly selfserving crooks and fanatics do. Whether it is Dems who want to ban guns or Repubs who hate gay people, they are usually crooks, fanatics or both. By the way I am not a gun enthusiast, I am a history enthusiast. Ask yourself what happened when the US Govt banned Abortion (1870) Booze (1919) and Cannabis (1937). I don't think banning either guns or gays would work any better.
I have to agree that honest people seldom go into politics. I have often wondered if it's the nature of politics that corrupts people or if its the sleaze gene in people that makes them go into politics. Regardless, the problem is attracting decent, honest people into politics.
On that note, let me offer my alternate proposal. Instead of voting for our office holders, let us select them at random as we select people for jury duty and limit each to a single term of 3 years at the end of which, they are guaranteed to return to their old jobs. They would receive the same remuneration as jurors and their employers would be compelled to make up the difference. They would all (president included) be provided with a cubicle in a large office building and share one secretary for every ten officials. No perks. No parking privileges. No security detail. No hot and cold running staffers (male or female). We would then turn the White House and Congress into public museums.
I like this idea.
We agree wholeheartedly with everyone who said (each in his/her own words) that the power of the people lies in VOTING. First, stop voting the same liars and hypocrites back into office. PAC money can buy attack ads, but it should not follow that it can also buy votes. Second, support - at the grassroots level - people you can trust. Inform yourself, so you know who they are. Then vote for them. Third, make reforming the Supreme Court a priority, because those people have almost unlimited power. Let's start with term limits (four years max), then set up a watchdog organization with authority to impeach. Why should the highest court in the land be above the law, when no one else is?
Good idea, but easier said than done. The R's are very good at gerrymandering and vote-suppressing, so good that in some places the D's would have to win 2/3 of the votes. And even that might not do. I saw the AG of Texas bragging that he threw out 2,500,000 legal mail-in votes. He said 'they were all from illegals." yeah right. But that county had lots of Black and Hispanic voters. Besides that, some of the D's are as batshit crazy as any R. the Biden bunch won't even say "woman" because they think it might offend the 1 woman in 10,000 who thinks she's a he. And BOTH parties are in thrall to Wall Street, Israel, Big Pharm, Big Ag, etc. We really need to replace both.
I have been a longtime subscriber to Hightower's Lowdown, and love your analyses. I have shared your precious work with everyone I know, and your comments on the Supreme Court (along with so much else) is the most hard-hitting and beautifully expressed I have ever come across. A few blogs ago you referred to countries around the world where authoritarian regimes have sought to take over the judiciary. You mentioned Hungary, I believe, and Poland (perhaps others) but you conspicuously left out Israel. Maybe that was just a casual omission. But now has Gaza is being pummeled, I don't see any of your newsletters addressing this horrible U.S. complicity with the apartheid state of Israel, a major violator of international law and a regime now involved in a genocide. Is one coming? Please say there is. Thank you, I'm a major fan, but believe that justice is not separable. It is universal or it is nothing at all.
Yes. The people of Israel were protesting in the street against Netanyahu and his proposed idea to change the Justice system in Israel.
Where were the people in the US protesting Clarence Thomas?
Poland now is on the right track.
The Un-Supreme Court of Ethical Weasels.
Could it be that the policians, short timers and the long-timers, knew of these behind the cloak shinangans and said nothing because they did not want their own unethical actions and behaviors to be exposed?
How can they write a code of ethics when they are unable to look at themselves and not think they need one ?
A code of ethics promulgated by the members of SCOTUS would be a step in the right direction.
Today's Charleston Gazette-Mail has an excellent article about MVP by Mike Tony He does so well reporting on the paperwork purgatory and the money hell. Have a great Halloweeeeeeeeen . I am going as Casper the friendly ghost 7- 10 pm costume party
Well Jim, if you buy the beer I will bring a fiddle (no lyre available, though no shortage of liars) 'cause I hope things with the Supreme Court Justices are about to get combustible.