James Ho, former clerk for Clarence Thomas is now a radical right federal judge. He was nominated by the fascist Trump and approved by fascist Republican Senators. Ho defends Thomas' blatant corruption. Above the Law writes:
Judge Ho Blows Off Clarence Thomas Taking $500K In Vacations BecauseSome Other Judges Own Stocks So... You Know... Something Something.There are bad arguments and then there's whatever Judge Ho was trying to do hereWhile many conservatives have kept their heads down while Justice Thomas suffers the slings and arrows of the outrageous consequences of his own ethical lapses, his former clerk decided to take a turn justifying half-a-million dollars in gifted vacations and having a right-wing donor house a jurist’s mother rent-free while failing to disclose it for years despite the incredibly explicit language of the statute.
It’s not an easy fact pattern to square with, you know, the law. But where there’s a will, there’s an incredibly disingenuous way:“Citizens deserve a government they can believe in. So I warmly welcome any good faith discussion about how to strengthen ethics in government,” Ho said in prepared remarks. “But we should apply the highest ethical standards, not hypocritical double standards.”
What the fuck does that even mean?Because even if there were double standards at play here, he’s saying that taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in value and failing to comply with basic financial disclosure laws is not covered by “the highest ethical standards” somehow? Any “hypocritical double standards” could only implicate others, never absolve Thomas — at least without invoking the “well, Jamie’s mom let’s her do it” doctrine. And I don’t think that was recognized by the Framers.
Ho pointed to a Wall Street Journal report that found more than 130 federal judges heard cases in which they or a family member owned stock in one of the involved companies, saying the report “did not accuse all of those judges of actual corruption. .... That’s an important distinction to draw. Because there’s a big difference between actual corruption and the appearance of corruption.”
That report determined that a whole bunch of judges failed to recuse themselves when a financial conflict existed.
Ho said Thomas wasn’t the only justice to take trips that were sponsored by individuals or organizations that don’t have interests pending before the court, but that hasn’t been enough to trigger recusal.
One, it probably should be. Two, Judge Ho knows other justices took trips… because they disclosed them. Maybe transparency cures these breaches and maybe it doesn’t, but there’s not even an attempt out of this guy to justify concealing this. As an advocacy for Thomas, Ho’s remarks amount to a non-sequitur.
So once again the bad faith and ill will that America's fascist radical right routinely operates with is on public display. Here Ho is trying to excuse the appearance of conflicts to distract from actual conflicts and corruption that Thomas operates without concern or moral qualm. We can look forward to the next Republican president nominating Ho for the Supreme Court.
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Pillow guy snippet: The WaPo reports:
Mike Lindell’s firm told to pay $5 million in ‘Prove Mike Wrong’election-fraud challengeMyPillow founder and prominent election denier Mike Lindell made a bold offer ahead of a “cyber symposium” he held in August 2021 in South Dakota: He claimed he had data showing Chinese interference and said he would pay $5 million to anyone who could prove the material was not from the previous year’s U.S. election.
He called the challenge “Prove Mike Wrong.”
On Wednesday, a private arbitration panel ruled that someone did.
The panel said Robert Zeidman, a computer forensics expert and 63-year-old Trump voter from Nevada, was entitled to the $5 million payout.
Zeidman had examined Lindell’s data and concluded that not only did it not prove voter fraud, it also had no connection to the 2020 election. He was the only expert who submitted a claim, arbitration records show.
He turned to the arbitrators after Lindell Management, which created the contest, refused to pay him.
In their 23-page decision, the arbitrators said Zeidman proved that Lindell’s material “unequivocally did not reflect November 2020 election data.” They directed Lindell’s firm to pay Zeidman within 30 days.
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The NYT writes about what the fascists are planning for 2025 with a fascist Republican in the White House:
Heritage Foundation Makes Plans to Staff Next G.O.P. Administration
No matter the Republican, the effort has set a goal of up to 20,000 potential officials in a database akin to a right-wing LinkedIn“In 2016, the conservative movement was not prepared to flood the zone with conservative personnel,” Dr. Roberts said. “On Jan. 20, 2025, things will be very different. This database will prepare an army of vetted, trained staff to begin dismantling the administrative state from Day 1.”
In late 2020, Mr. Trump issued an executive order that would establish a new employment category for federal workers, called “Schedule F.” Barely anyone noticed because the order was developed in strict secrecy over more than a year and issued only two weeks before the 2020 election.
Key officials involved with the federal civil service immediately grasped the significance of Schedule F and its potential to create a new federal work force in which loyalty to Mr. Trump was the highest criteria, they said.
Mr. Trump’s staff estimated that Schedule F would give the president the power to terminate and replace as many as 50,000 career government officials who served in roles that influenced federal policy.
President Biden rescinded the Schedule F order on his third day in office, but over the past two years, several of Mr. Trump’s confidants, including his former budget director Russell T. Vought, have been working on a plan to re-enact the order and gut the federal civil service in a second Trump administration.
What that means is clear and undeniable. The fascists intend to get rid of business regulations and most federal regulatory agencies, gut consumer protections, kill democracy and civil liberties including voting rights, severely reduce domestic safety net spending, reduce taxes on the wealthy, and open the floodgates for state and federal tax dollars to flow into the coffers of big corporations and Christian churches, organizations and businesses.
The only question is whether the fascists can pull it off. If Trump is re-elected, he won't care about professionals who are competent. Competence is not relevant to him. He cares about thugs who are loyal.
What the GOP wants to do to American democracy is exactly the same as what Viktor Orban did to democracy in Hungary, i.e., kill it and replace it with dictatorship and single party rule. That is what a new and improved Schedule F will do to democracy and the federal government.
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From the People Shooting People For No Reason Files: The AP writes:
A North Carolina man accused of shooting and wounding a 6-year-old girl and her parents after children went to retrieve a basketball that had rolled into his yard was arrested in Florida Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
The violence was the latest in a string of recent shootings sparked by seemingly trivial circumstances.
Robert Louis Singletary, 24, was arrested in the Tampa area by Hillsborough County deputies, according to online jail records.
A 6-year-old girl, Kinsley White, was grazed by a bullet in the left cheek and was treated at a hospital and released, she and her family said. Her father, Jamie White, who had run to her aid, was shot in the back. He remained hospitalized Thursday with serious wounds, including liver damage, according to Kinsley’s grandfather and neighbor, Carl Hilderbrand. The girl’s mother, Ashley Hilderbrand, was grazed in the elbow. Authorities say Singletary also shot at another man but missed.
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