News bits: Supreme Court and political party moral rot; An endless defamation redux?: A Christian cataclysm?

MSN reports about a report by Business Insider:

2 Supreme Court justices failed to recuse themselves from cases involving their publisher after receiving large amounts in book advances and royalties

• Both Sotomayor and Gorsuch have reported earning large paychecks from Penguin Random House for publishing books.

• Gorsuch failed to recuse himself from one of the cases. Sotomayor didn't recuse herself from both [either?]. 

According to Sotomayor's financial disclosures, as CNN reported, she's made approximately $3.6 million in royalties and advances for the several books she's published under Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, which is part of Penguin Random House. 

As for Gorsuch, his financial disclosures note he's made at least $655,000 from Penguin Random House over the past few years from his book, "A Republic, If You Can Keep It."

Oh wonderful. The moral rot is bipartisan, not monopartisan. I recall when Nancy Pelosi reluctantly agreed to make insider trading illegal by politicians in congress and their staffs and family. That is when I really understood how morally rotted and corrupt both parties had become. They can't even recognize their own major corruption. They are truly morally bankrupt.*

* Yes, not all elite politicians are corrupt like that. Unfortunately, the few who do understand the concept of corruption are a minority, maybe ~20% of Dems and ~5% of Repubs.

Unlike Clarence Thomas,** who tried to hide his corruption, Sotomayor and Gorsuch did not try to hide their loot and reported all the money they received. Sotomayor and Gorsuch actually believed there was no conflict of interest going on. Which is worse, Thomas intentionally hiding his corruption or Sotomayor and Gorsuch not recognizing when it applied to themselves? Both are worse, in my opinion. Either way, this stinks quite a lot.

** Business insider reports: Clarence Thomas, who accepted lavish gifts from a billionaire, argued that a law prohibiting taking bribes is too vague to be fairly enforced. Aw, we all want fairness for poor, beleaguered Clarence, right? Opacity and not reporting income or conflicts of interest should afford adequate protection for the innocent, long-suffering patriot. Right? /s

Snark alert: A Republic, If You Can Keep It?? Anyone see any irony in that, or is it just me hallucinating?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

The NYT reports that E. Jean Carroll is considering a new defamation lawsuit against Trump for his slandering comments about her during his recent town hall. The ex-prez said that Carroll was a “wack job” and her civil trial was “a rigged deal.” One can see it now. Carroll wins another defamation lawsuit and immediately afterwards, he goes out and slanders her in public again, so she sues again. That could go on until one of the two drops dead because, as we all know, the ex-prez just can't stop publicly slandering people. Well, at least he is consistent.

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

Rut roh, one can feel the wrath of an enraged, vengeful God starting to bubble up from the black cauldron of poisonous Christian nationalist politics. What could trigger such a cataclysm? Money.

The WaPo reports that the IRS has imposed a new rule that will tax private jets. But the horror of this evil, deep state, socialist pedophile aggression is that the new tax will apply to, GASP!, Pastors!! The horror, the horror. One can sense the self-righteous wrath rising among the Christian nationalist elites and their loyal flocks. The WaPo writes:

The IRS just hiked taxes on private jet flights. Pastors are not excluded.

In 2017, Texas-based televangelist Kenneth Copeland told his followers he received a very specific message from the Holy Spirit: The Lord had set aside a luxury Gulfstream V jet for his ministry’s use.

Copeland purchased the jet — in cash — from filmmaker Tyler Perry in November of that year and soon released a celebratory video, along with a request for another $2.5 million for upgrades.

“Let’s be aggressive in our faith, in our giving and in our harvesting!” the Jan. 12, 2018, post said.

Copeland is one of a handful of prosperity gospel pastors who insist that jets are essential to their ministry. “If I flew commercial, I’d have to stop 65% of what I’m doing,” Copeland told Inside Edition in 2019.

The burden on Christianity from this evil deep state pedophile attack will lead to the collapse of Christianity in America and the rise of evil deep state pedophilic atheism. Innocent Christians will be rounded up, put in re-education camps and brainwashed into mindless atheists. Bibles will be burned. Dogs will sleep with cats. Churches will be converted from tax sheltered scams into shelters for homeless people. Other horrors will happen.

So, let’s be aggressive in our faith, in our giving and in our harvesting of mucho cash for the valiant Christian nationalist elites who own luxury jets and struggle tirelessly to save us all from secular perdition and fornication. /s

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

From the Daggers in the Night Files: The NYT writes about a radical right, middle of the night sneak attack on federal regulations:

Little-Noticed Part of G.O.P. Bill Could ‘Make It Impossible to Regulate’

House Republicans want every major rule to come up for a vote. That could be a recipe for no regulations at all

Under a little-noticed provision in a House bill that passed this month, all of [recently proposed new] regulations would need to come before Congress for a vote before they could go into effect.

“It may seem like it’s in the weeds, but it really affects all of us,” said Susan Dudley, the director of the regulatory studies center at George Washington University, who was the top regulatory official in the George W. Bush administration. She was one of several leading experts who were unaware that the bill contained this provision.

The Republican legislation, which is not expected to become law in its current form, has mostly attracted attention for its part in the debate about raising the country’s borrowing limit, and for its proposals to reduce federal deficits over the next decade. But its effort to reshape the federal regulatory process could arguably have a deeper impact on the future functioning of government.

Presumably, this attack on regulations comes primarily from the fascist brass knuckles capitalist wing of the radical right Republican Party. However, as time passes and the central dogmas of Christian nationalism sink in and internalize, it is more likely than not that most of the Christofascist Christian nationalist elites who control the GOP together with the fascist capitalists are on board with killing federal regulations. 

The two ideologies have significantly overlapping agendas and elite players. Both want to neuter federal government power. The fascist Christians hate civil liberties, while the fascist capitalists hate business regulations. The elites in both ideological camps want power shifted from the federal government to themselves. It seems likely that most GOP Christian nationalist elites are also radical capitalist elites. In my assessment, this attack on government power comes ~55% from radical capitalist elites and ~45% from radical Christian nationalist elites.

This proposed law will not pass congress or a Democratic Party president. But if the GOP get control of everything in 2024, this is exactly the kind of thing the fascist Republican Party will try to do. Radical Republican elite intention here is clear and undeniable -- kill government, regulations and civil liberties, and then take control of power and wealth.

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

The NYT writes about intentions of radical right Republican Party elites:

Trump’s Second-Term Goal: Shattering the Norms He Didn’t Already Break

The former president made it clearer than ever this week that on issues including Ukraine, the economy and the rule of law, his return to office would lead to a sharp departure from core American values

In little over an hour, DJT suggested the United States should default on its debts for the first time in history, injected doubt over the country’s commitment to defending Ukraine from Russia’s invasion, dangled pardons for most of the Capitol rioters convicted of crimes, and refused to say he would abide by the results of the next presidential election.

The second-term vision Mr. Trump sketched out at a CNN town-hall event on Wednesday would represent a sharp departure from core American values that have been at the bedrock of the nation for decades: its creditworthiness, its credibility with international allies and its adherence to the rule of law at home.

No wonder the US has lost a lot of international prestige and respect among our allies. The fascist Republican Party clearly wants this country to be just like itself, i.e., a morally bankrupt, corrupt, brutal, tin pot dictatorship, not a pluralistic democracy.