Saturday Report - The "Manson Girls" held vigil outside Charles' 1971 trial, just like Mike "Squeaky" Johnson & his GOP friends are doing now for their cult leader...
Saturday Report - The "Manson Girls" held vigil outside Charles' 1971 trial, just like Mike "Squeaky" Johnson & his GOP friends are doing now for their cult leader...
Follow the money behind Supreme Court corruption and arrogance - including both Justices and their spouses with this interactive map "SUPREME COURT MAP OF SHAME".
I still can't get over the fact that nobody asked in oral argument in the immunity cases why Thomas and Alito (and maybe Roberts) were participating since they should be disqualified after the November 13, 2023 ethics order. https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/11/the-new-scotus-code-of-conduct/
28 U.S. Code § 455 - Disqualification of justice, judge, or magistrate judge
(a)Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
When the high court becomes corrupted Daniel it means that the legal system is, intentionally being caused to fall apart, in this case through fascism and in this case through religion.
Merrick Garland was vetted to Obama by Sen Orrin Hatch D UT, If you have any memory you will know that Hatch was the most right wing of senators at the time. Obama wanted a win, and thought that a SCOTUS nominee, vetted by a far right Sen would get approved by the Senate. Mitch didn't appoint him, because he didn't want to give Obama a win.
Garland was also an employee of the Federalist Society, served 10 times as a moderator
I am not going to do the work for you, do your own google, the links are there.
Trump in his last two weeks in office, signed executive order 13957, which created Schedule F civil service, by embedding them in cabinets and forcing out, incumbents, by making them at will. and then appointed federalist and right wing ideologues to DOJ, DHS, DOD, DOJ, NSA..
Biden foolishly reverted this rule with EO 14005 thus taking away a tool he could have used to clean the DOJ stable, as well as NSA, DOD,DHS stable of leftover Trump manure.
The proof of the pudding is that Garland was not going to even investigate Trump, until he was shamed into by about 100 of his peers, in the form of an open letter (google it)
And finally the media started to wave their finger, only then almost 2 years after the Jan 6 committee hearings did he appoint Jack Smith.
Merrick Garland stillhasn't investigated the ring leaders in Congress of the Jan 6 insurrection, like Gaeetz, Hawley, Boebert, Gomert, Biggs. Jordan
The ones that were prosecuted were cannon fodder and even then most of them got little more than slaps on the hand,misdeamonrs and weeks or a few months in Jail. The most venal of the cannon fodder, like Stewart Rhodes, Fuentes, Torrio, got years. and that's OK because they were sacrifices for the because they are sacrifices.
And then there are the last minute Trump appointeees, that Garland has elevated, by volunteering to appoint an eager beaver name of David Weiss as special counsel to prosecute Hunter Biden, meanwhile not a peep about Garland appointing a special council to investigate Ivanka or Don jr.
You want links, get them yourself, there is enough info above to find the links if you really want them.
Bofus, however Biden can get rid of Dejoy, easy, he had a chance in 2021 and chose not to.
My question, and I am of a suspcious mind, is why hasn't he acted. The only answers are not nice.
Only the board of governors can fire the PF. There are 11 members on the board, 9 serve a limited term, the PG gets one vote, his deputy gets one. vote,
In Dec 21 two seats became vacant. Biden replaced them with a Dem and a Republican thus maintaining the balance,two more seats came open in Dec 2022, and Biden has left them vacant.
You can google USPS Board of Directors as I did, and get that info.
Now why isn't Biden fill the two vacant seats with Democrats.?
It is true that they are not subject to 28 USC 144. Bias or prejudice
Whenever a party to any proceeding in a district court makes and files a timely and sufficient affidavit that the judge before whom the matter is pending has a personal bias or prejudice either against him or in favor of any adverse party, such judge shall proceed no further therein, but another judge shall be assigned to hear such proceeding.
The affidavit shall state the facts and the reasons for the belief that bias or prejudice exists, and shall be filed not less than ten days before the beginning of the term at which the proceeding is to be heard, or good cause shall be shown for failure to file it within such time. A party may file only one such affidavit in any case. It shall be accompanied by a certificate of counsel of record stating that it is made in good faith.
Rep. Raskin and Gov. Newsome have been talking about the billion dollar bribery scheme. I would hope to hear from more of Congress, and it sounds like they are demanding answers. This is from Courthouse News Service 5/16/24 by Edvard Pettersson titled "Newsom calls Trump request for $1 billion from oil industry ‘open corruption’ ":
"Trump reportedly made his pitch to a group of oil executives and lobbyists at a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month. According to the Washington Post, Trump hosted a 20-person “Energy Round Table” with top oil and gas executives and requested $1 billion in campaign contributions from the industry executives in exchange for an explicit promise that, if elected, his administration would roll back environmental regulations.
U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland and a ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said this week that he has demanded answers from nine Big Oil CEOs following the reports of the quid pro quo proposition Trump made to dismantle fossil fuel regulations in exchange for $1 billion in contributions to his presidential campaign."
If there were only 20 people involved, who talked to MSNBC and WAPO? They may not have been willing to speak to the other channels and papers. Someone scared them?
Meanwhile concerning Trump's previous campaign bribery---The Manson Girls, HA! Funny but an apt comparison. Speaking up for their psychopath, now that IS sick!
Great analogy of the Manson Family to the Cult of Trump. Thanks for that.
I love the broken clock analogy, because it so applies.
Alito flying the flag upside down is correct, but for reasons the opposite of Alito’s. An upside down flag is a symbol of distress. When 18 it was my duty to raise and lower the flag every morning, at a little outpost inside he arctic circle. Quite a chore when it was 40 below and the wind was blowing. In my haste one day, I raised it upside down, and a C-118 flyiing over, saw it and landed to see what was wrong. I was fortunate to get away with a tongue lashing.
America is in distress and has been since January 2016, and a case can be made that it has been since its founding which did not recognize the humanity of women, slaves,, Indians or anyone who was not a property owner.
Of couse Alito and Thomas will not recuse themselves, why should they, there is no mechanism to force them, no mechanism to discipline them, , no mechanism to punish them. There are 9 gods in black robes, with no restraints or constraints, no shame, driven by religion, bias, ideology and money
They have power only because we the people give them power, only because we submit to their tyranny.
Andrew Jackson, a cold blooded racist, was correct when he said “Justice Marshall has ruled, now let him enforce his ruling”
Cable news is not reporting on Trump’s $1 billion dollar bribe offer because cable news is owned by corporations, and people who benefited and will benefit from Trum
For those who want to do more than vent their spleen. Google “Who owns _______” (insert name of corporation), then when you tet the results, open another tab on the browser than google “Who owns ____” , do that for all of the answers, wash, rinse, repeat until there is nothing left, also google individual investors as well as corporate investors. I can tell you three names that you will see at the top of all lists. Vanguard, Black Rock, State Street., and not just in media.
Not to long ago, there was a female commenter, either on Hartmann or Robert Reich who complained that no fault divorce made it easy for men, to divorce their wives, I tried to correct her by pointing out that previous to no fault divorce a woman had to prove her husband was beating her, abusing her, and cheating on her. I don’t think that I convinced her, but no fault divorce was a woman’s best out of a harmful relationship, and yes it helped men also.
In Islam, a man can say “I divorce thee” three times, and it is done, a woman does not have that choice
A woman can only divorce her husband through a judicial decree
Saudi Arabia, men can divorce their wives without legal justification, and the divorce becomes effective immediately. This practice is called talaq, or summary divorce.
Talaq is an Arabic word that means "release" or "undoing the knot". It is also a method of Islamic separation where a husband can unilaterally grant a divorce to his wife. The husband can do this verbally or in writing, and the marriage is dissolved instantly after the husband pronounces "I divorce thee
The profit motive build and empowered China, it started when Kissinger made a secret trip to China in 1971, and then Nixon followed suit in Feb 72, and met with Mao See Dung (Purposely misspelled)
In 1979 the U.S. and China reestablished diplomatic relations and signed a bilateral trade agreement. This gave a start to a rapid growth of trade between the two nations
Bill Clinton when he signed a revised GATT, further opened the door to China and juiced it’s economic engine, and that is when
China has been making airplane parts for Boeing since 2001, when the Tianjin-based joint venture BHA Aero Composite Parts Co. began operations. BHA is an equity-share joint venture between Boeing, Hexcel Corporation, and Aviation Industries of China I. BHA specializes in producing composite parts for aerospace interiors and secondary structures, and currently provides components for the 737, 767, and 777 airplanes
Taiwan based but not Taiwan operated, The worlds leader in chips is Taiwan Semi Conductor, and the world
Established in Taiwan in 1974, Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) (TWSE: 2317) is the world's largest electronics manufacturer.
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, has manufacturing complexes in 16 provinces of China, as well as in Beijing, Shanghai, Tian-jin, and Chongqing. The largest Foxconn factory is located in Longhua Subdistrict, Shenzhen, where hundreds of thousands of workers work at the Longhua Science & Technology Park, also known as "Foxconn City".
The United States and China signed an historic and enforceable agreement on a Phase One trade deal on January 15, 2020, The last week of Barack Obama’s presidency.
No it is quite possible that the razor thin majority and minority in the house would not allow going after Thomas and Alito. It would be great if enough Republicans voted for some measures against those two criminals but chances are very poor as you say. However, taking the two to task in the halls of Congress and therefore in the news media might just be enough to cause the rest of the justices to take heed.
Going after Thomas and Alito for their corruption would be a good idea, but I am not sure the razor thin majority of the Democrats in the Senate would allow for it. I don’t think we could snag enough votes to do it. We also don’t have the votes in the House to run a normal impeachment process. The Republicans in the senate have only been too willing to defy their oaths of office at McConnell’s demand to acquit an obviously guilty president Trump for instigating an insurrection. They also sought to cook up bogus impeachment charges against President Biden. Those blew up in their collective faces when their Putin connected “source” got arrested for lying to the FBI, and the Democratic Senate squashed their bogus case against Secretary Mayorkas.
Kathy, Whether something is popular with a wide base of Republicans is immaterial, all it has to be is championed by the base, just look at the spectacle in Trump's trial. A rabid minority controls the Republican party, and a rabid minority is controlling the governance and judicial system of the country. And the rabid minority is patriarchal, and is using and have used their control to reinstate their total control over women and the family. A 21st Century version of Augustus Caesars law of Pater Familia.
Republicans blast in neon their every political effort to minimize and trivialize their opposition,
no matter how vacuous or laughable. Such efforts keep the fires going for their base. It is not to convince, it is to add kindling to the fires that keep them daily engaged. On the other hand, elected Democrats, always alert to impose their intellectual image, and their massive base, are kept dispirited by lamenting the implausibly of this or that political move. They state the body of a possible tactic and almost immediately deconstruct it, saying it won't work, most of the time expressed in numbers, mostly in projected numbers at that. The fires of hope among America's Blues are routinely doused by this continued defeatism. Were all political possibilities followed through on, filed every time, against all odds, by elected Democrats, Blues would see the fight is alive. Beats the hell out of aw-shucking it, keeping Blues dispirited. The Reds are hip to this, the Blues not so much.
I understand what you are saying. The Democrats need to ignore the Maga people, and the Networks need to stop giving them so much press. I am not glue to the television to hear about his everyday fanfluken! What the people want to hear is encouragement and empowerment! Stop feeling doomsday defeat.
Who that was alive at that horrible time could ever forget the foolish women who protected that monster? They wasted their whole lives incarcerated. And I believe they came from upscale society. I have never understood that type of manipulation Manson had on those girls nor their weakness. Wasted lives.
Mike Johnson, Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas provide compelling evidence that the ignorance and arrogance born of indoctrination cannot be educated away. Alito & Thomas are obstructing justice by slow walking the bogus, Trump immunity case. Cannon is doing the same with the most important espionage case in US history. I agree with Thom we need some intense pressure on these lawless justices to retire. They've been drinking the GOP Kool aid so long they've deluded themselves into thinking it's up to them to save the country by installing their brand of corrupt fascism. The whole GOP is certifiable. They've ripped off the people that have toiled for them, to make many of them rich during the last 100+years, redistributed $50T from the bottom to the tippy top over the past 40 years with political bribery, now they want to enslave & silence them.
Great minds think alike lol. I posted on Facebook last night about the similarities between The Trump cult and the Manson Family. I do remember Squeaky Fromme being a leader of the family members not indicted for the murders (and now still in prison for trying to assassinate Ford in '75). They did Yoko Ono-like chants proclaiming Manson's innocence. They all carved Xs into their heads when Charlie did it. Squeaker of the House Johnson and his Squeakettes don't have Xs for identification. Just the red ties.
I agree 100% that "It’s time for corrupt, billionaire-funded Justice Sam Alito to step down or be investigated and impeached." "Should be" and "will be" are as different as night and day. We know Alito and Thomas are corrupt, immoral, fascist leaning, anti-democracy members of the Supreme Court. We know what they've done and where their allegiances lie. Yet, we the people, can do little to rid our country of these cancerous tumors who infect our country's soul with their greed and hatred.
The only answer to make a difference and save our democracy is to VOTE! Join like-minded groups working to positively impact the 2024 elections with the largest turnout of Democratic voters ever witnessed in an American election.
We CAN stop these leeches at every level of government by working together, ignoring the atrocities that sap our energy and, most important, registering voters. LETS'S DO THIS!
The rich owners of the press & media that American's get ignore the majority of corruption ongoing in society by the GOP and say doing so is a fair and balanced take on politics. No coverage for Dems and constant watch and coverage of everything GOP is no balance not to mention the education of the public in order to make good decisions in social justice. Big news has no shame.
Thom, something has to be done about Alito and Thomas how is this all Ali right. Thom there really are so many things to watch out for that’s happening right in front of all of us. The Supreme Court this is insane. Thanks Thom.
My first observation is on The Wisdom School column. All four things are true. Excessive human population is going to destroy us—in the First World because we consume and pollute too much, in the Third World because poverty engenders poor health and likely more and more lethal pandemics. As to the culture of corruption Thom describes, I fear it may never be broken, only modified by replacing one corrupt set with another. The driver is money, made sacred as speech along with the nonsensical creation of corporate “personhood” by our terrible SCOTUS. Historically, revolutions have been like fireworks displays—briefly brilliant, before things go back to what they were, with a change of characters at the top who soon succumb to the same blandishments of money and power.
Having said that, I would almost welcome a new revolution here, but for the reality that we have tens of millions of ignorant, likely irredeemable citizens, and too many of the best people would die. The morbidly rich might escape with private, highly paid security forces and fortress retreats around the world.
Which brings me to the issue of belief, or faith. I found religious faith when I was 70, six years ago, in the American Greek Orthodox Church. I won’t belabor why, here, except to say that I have found in it a truly Christian belief system with the wisdom to trust science, embrace the separation of church and state, and recognize we flawed humans lack the right or ability to judge the life choices of anyone, an authority given only to God when we fall asleep for the last time. But here’s the thing: belief, or faith, is unavoidable. I believe in science. I have faith in my doctors and my wife. I accept ob faith the existence of an infinity of things I have never seen, heard or experienced.
My belief in God, and my belief that God may welcome those following many path to his/her/its existence other than mine, is no different to me. But it does have a dark side. I believe in God because I have lost all faith in humanity, and my only hope is that there is something superior out there, to our species and the lives we lead or choose to lead. Our history has moments of great nobility and achievement. But to me, they are dwarfed by our embrace of greed, tribalism, violence, bigotry in all of its forms, the arrogance that has destroyed innumerable other species, billions of our fellow humans, and probably our planet in the not too distant future. Oh, I will keep fighting for what I believe (that word again) is right and good. But I do so in the firm expectation that I am only helping in my small way to delay the inevitable. I hope I am wrong. Selfishly, for my beloved grandson, my other family members, my many dear friends. More generously because I know there are billions of decent people out there. But as someone who has spent a lifetime obsessed with history, I fear my hope will prove a vain one.
Once again, I have to “thank” Thom for reinforcing my pessimism on almost a daily basis. That is no criticism. It is a reflection of the fact that he forces us to look the unvarnished truth in the eye, and galvanizes me and I hope others to fight despite the odds against us. For that, I really am grateful, as it prevents me from becoming comfortably numb, which would be the easy path.
It is a fact, that the denizens of the 1st world, are the contributors to global warming, and hunger in the the 3rd world
Bu the 3rd world is it's own enemy, or rather the need to breed, the need for orgasm is, as you look around the world, the most impoverished, the most famine ridden, the hungrier the population, the greater the birth rate. They are literally screwing themselves.
Exactly. And why? A combination of ignorance, religious opposition to birth control, and the fact they have little other than sex to entertain themselves. There are solutions, but they all require a massive first world financial and moral commitment, unlikely to be forthcoming in time or at all, really. Because greed is universal, and ignorance increasingly so in the 1st world as well.
Greed and ignorance are universal, but more prominent in the 1st world, from your perspective, because that is where you live.. When it comes to human behavior, foibles, and needs, there is nothing exclusive to the 1st world, that isn't found in the 3rd world.
When it comes to drives, fears, needs, desires humanity is undifferentiated.
People don't have sex to entertain themselves either. it is a primal drive.
Humans delude themselves into believing that they are superior to other animals, what differs us from them is our ability to control our drives.
Granted. Sex is also fun, probably in service of that primal drive. Somehow animals seem to manage their drives better than humans. With some exceptions in the indigenous world, where non-technological humans appear to have lived, as some still do, in greater harmony with the environment. Not that I envy them. I would have died young in such a society. Only an immense amount of modern medical care keeps me going. Functional, in pain, but content unless my mind starts to go, or I go blind, for then so must I go too.
The sex drive for most mammals is regulated by hormones and only in seasons that result in them bearing young in spring or when the weather and clime are favorable for rearing young.
There are some mammals ready for sex all of the time, at least among the males.
When I was stationed at what is now Iqualit, then Frobisher Bay, Canadian NW territory.
An Eskimo women showed up pregnant out of season, and the Mounties, who were god, the Mountie shack was opposite the orderly room, and when the troops lined up for pay call, the pregnant woman was at the window and she pointed out the dude who done the job.
He was of course jailed by the Mounties, he was sent off to prison somewhere.
The orderly room was separated from the outside by double doors, inside the first set of doors was the mail room, another of my jobs was putting up the mail, well one day after the mail plane flew in and delivered the mail, I walked into the foyer or room where the mail boxes were and there was a husky beating his meat with his hind foot.
The place was overrun with huskies, just before the first snowfall,the Mounties walk around shooting the huskies, to provide food for the other dogs. Coming out of the chow hall one day, I saw the carcass of a dog moving, when I got close it was a bitch with her pups inside living off the carcass. Dead dogs scatttered all around, if not for them, the living would have attacked humans.
A mile or two out in the bay, was an island they called Dog Island. The Mounties would round up dogs in spring, take them to the island, and let them loose, to devour each other.
A couple of Canadian D.O.T. (Dept of Transporation) offiicals came to visit, and wanted to see Dog Island. The boat they were in capasized, they later found them in the bottom of the bay, swaying back and forth with the current, half eaten by sea lice in their waders.
Such unusual proofs of the human urge controls there. I can of course believe it. My ex was born in Vancouver, raised first in Winnipeg, then Anaheim, now at age 80 (we split up jus under 40 years ago, when she moved there) in Kihei, on the island of Maui. But always Anglo-Canadian to the core. Never saw that side of Canada, though I only had one long excursion there, along Canada one through the three Western provinces, which were lovely, as were the people.
See the 10 Ways Samuel Alito Has Changed Your Life
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/05/18/how-samuel-alito-has-changed-your-life/
Follow the money behind Supreme Court corruption and arrogance - including both Justices and their spouses with this interactive map "SUPREME COURT MAP OF SHAME".
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/05/17/supreme-court-map-of-shame-alito-violation-of-ethics/
I still can't get over the fact that nobody asked in oral argument in the immunity cases why Thomas and Alito (and maybe Roberts) were participating since they should be disqualified after the November 13, 2023 ethics order. https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/11/the-new-scotus-code-of-conduct/
28 U.S. Code § 455 - Disqualification of justice, judge, or magistrate judge
(a)Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
When the high court becomes corrupted Daniel it means that the legal system is, intentionally being caused to fall apart, in this case through fascism and in this case through religion.
Maybe because the DoJ is staffed by Trump Humpers, led by a right winger. Maybe because the attorneys are scared of SCOTUS, Daniel.
William where are you getting this information from. Please give us a reference and a link if possible. Thank you.
Merrick Garland was vetted to Obama by Sen Orrin Hatch D UT, If you have any memory you will know that Hatch was the most right wing of senators at the time. Obama wanted a win, and thought that a SCOTUS nominee, vetted by a far right Sen would get approved by the Senate. Mitch didn't appoint him, because he didn't want to give Obama a win.
Garland was also an employee of the Federalist Society, served 10 times as a moderator
I am not going to do the work for you, do your own google, the links are there.
Trump in his last two weeks in office, signed executive order 13957, which created Schedule F civil service, by embedding them in cabinets and forcing out, incumbents, by making them at will. and then appointed federalist and right wing ideologues to DOJ, DHS, DOD, DOJ, NSA..
Biden foolishly reverted this rule with EO 14005 thus taking away a tool he could have used to clean the DOJ stable, as well as NSA, DOD,DHS stable of leftover Trump manure.
The proof of the pudding is that Garland was not going to even investigate Trump, until he was shamed into by about 100 of his peers, in the form of an open letter (google it)
And finally the media started to wave their finger, only then almost 2 years after the Jan 6 committee hearings did he appoint Jack Smith.
Merrick Garland stillhasn't investigated the ring leaders in Congress of the Jan 6 insurrection, like Gaeetz, Hawley, Boebert, Gomert, Biggs. Jordan
The ones that were prosecuted were cannon fodder and even then most of them got little more than slaps on the hand,misdeamonrs and weeks or a few months in Jail. The most venal of the cannon fodder, like Stewart Rhodes, Fuentes, Torrio, got years. and that's OK because they were sacrifices for the because they are sacrifices.
And then there are the last minute Trump appointeees, that Garland has elevated, by volunteering to appoint an eager beaver name of David Weiss as special counsel to prosecute Hunter Biden, meanwhile not a peep about Garland appointing a special council to investigate Ivanka or Don jr.
You want links, get them yourself, there is enough info above to find the links if you really want them.
Biden can't even get rid of Louis DeJoy, FFS. I'm so sick of Dems bringing a chocolate cake to a gunfight that I want to scream.
Bofus, however Biden can get rid of Dejoy, easy, he had a chance in 2021 and chose not to.
My question, and I am of a suspcious mind, is why hasn't he acted. The only answers are not nice.
Only the board of governors can fire the PF. There are 11 members on the board, 9 serve a limited term, the PG gets one vote, his deputy gets one. vote,
In Dec 21 two seats became vacant. Biden replaced them with a Dem and a Republican thus maintaining the balance,two more seats came open in Dec 2022, and Biden has left them vacant.
You can google USPS Board of Directors as I did, and get that info.
Now why isn't Biden fill the two vacant seats with Democrats.?
Even the question is unflattering to Biden.
I beg you to google it.
Don't forget Cruz and the Ginny Thomas who paid for a bus to D.C.
Thank you for that William. I will investigate more.
Unfortunately, short memories have always been a detriment.
Thanks for the reminder.
https://prospect.org/justice/trump-holdovers-still-dot-us-attorneys-offices/
SCOTUS has rejected the notion that 28 USC § 455 applies to themselves.
I don't think that's true. It says "Justice."
It is true that they are not subject to 28 USC 144. Bias or prejudice
Whenever a party to any proceeding in a district court makes and files a timely and sufficient affidavit that the judge before whom the matter is pending has a personal bias or prejudice either against him or in favor of any adverse party, such judge shall proceed no further therein, but another judge shall be assigned to hear such proceeding.
The affidavit shall state the facts and the reasons for the belief that bias or prejudice exists, and shall be filed not less than ten days before the beginning of the term at which the proceeding is to be heard, or good cause shall be shown for failure to file it within such time. A party may file only one such affidavit in any case. It shall be accompanied by a certificate of counsel of record stating that it is made in good faith.
The truth doesn't matter when you're the foxes guarding the henhouse.
Rep. Raskin and Gov. Newsome have been talking about the billion dollar bribery scheme. I would hope to hear from more of Congress, and it sounds like they are demanding answers. This is from Courthouse News Service 5/16/24 by Edvard Pettersson titled "Newsom calls Trump request for $1 billion from oil industry ‘open corruption’ ":
"Trump reportedly made his pitch to a group of oil executives and lobbyists at a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month. According to the Washington Post, Trump hosted a 20-person “Energy Round Table” with top oil and gas executives and requested $1 billion in campaign contributions from the industry executives in exchange for an explicit promise that, if elected, his administration would roll back environmental regulations.
U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland and a ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said this week that he has demanded answers from nine Big Oil CEOs following the reports of the quid pro quo proposition Trump made to dismantle fossil fuel regulations in exchange for $1 billion in contributions to his presidential campaign."
If there were only 20 people involved, who talked to MSNBC and WAPO? They may not have been willing to speak to the other channels and papers. Someone scared them?
Meanwhile concerning Trump's previous campaign bribery---The Manson Girls, HA! Funny but an apt comparison. Speaking up for their psychopath, now that IS sick!
So appreciate you.
Thanks again Thom, best Saturday Report ever
Great analogy of the Manson Family to the Cult of Trump. Thanks for that.
I love the broken clock analogy, because it so applies.
Alito flying the flag upside down is correct, but for reasons the opposite of Alito’s. An upside down flag is a symbol of distress. When 18 it was my duty to raise and lower the flag every morning, at a little outpost inside he arctic circle. Quite a chore when it was 40 below and the wind was blowing. In my haste one day, I raised it upside down, and a C-118 flyiing over, saw it and landed to see what was wrong. I was fortunate to get away with a tongue lashing.
America is in distress and has been since January 2016, and a case can be made that it has been since its founding which did not recognize the humanity of women, slaves,, Indians or anyone who was not a property owner.
Of couse Alito and Thomas will not recuse themselves, why should they, there is no mechanism to force them, no mechanism to discipline them, , no mechanism to punish them. There are 9 gods in black robes, with no restraints or constraints, no shame, driven by religion, bias, ideology and money
They have power only because we the people give them power, only because we submit to their tyranny.
Andrew Jackson, a cold blooded racist, was correct when he said “Justice Marshall has ruled, now let him enforce his ruling”
Cable news is not reporting on Trump’s $1 billion dollar bribe offer because cable news is owned by corporations, and people who benefited and will benefit from Trum
For those who want to do more than vent their spleen. Google “Who owns _______” (insert name of corporation), then when you tet the results, open another tab on the browser than google “Who owns ____” , do that for all of the answers, wash, rinse, repeat until there is nothing left, also google individual investors as well as corporate investors. I can tell you three names that you will see at the top of all lists. Vanguard, Black Rock, State Street., and not just in media.
Not to long ago, there was a female commenter, either on Hartmann or Robert Reich who complained that no fault divorce made it easy for men, to divorce their wives, I tried to correct her by pointing out that previous to no fault divorce a woman had to prove her husband was beating her, abusing her, and cheating on her. I don’t think that I convinced her, but no fault divorce was a woman’s best out of a harmful relationship, and yes it helped men also.
In Islam, a man can say “I divorce thee” three times, and it is done, a woman does not have that choice
A woman can only divorce her husband through a judicial decree
Saudi Arabia, men can divorce their wives without legal justification, and the divorce becomes effective immediately. This practice is called talaq, or summary divorce.
Talaq is an Arabic word that means "release" or "undoing the knot". It is also a method of Islamic separation where a husband can unilaterally grant a divorce to his wife. The husband can do this verbally or in writing, and the marriage is dissolved instantly after the husband pronounces "I divorce thee
The profit motive build and empowered China, it started when Kissinger made a secret trip to China in 1971, and then Nixon followed suit in Feb 72, and met with Mao See Dung (Purposely misspelled)
In 1979 the U.S. and China reestablished diplomatic relations and signed a bilateral trade agreement. This gave a start to a rapid growth of trade between the two nations
Bill Clinton when he signed a revised GATT, further opened the door to China and juiced it’s economic engine, and that is when
China has been making airplane parts for Boeing since 2001, when the Tianjin-based joint venture BHA Aero Composite Parts Co. began operations. BHA is an equity-share joint venture between Boeing, Hexcel Corporation, and Aviation Industries of China I. BHA specializes in producing composite parts for aerospace interiors and secondary structures, and currently provides components for the 737, 767, and 777 airplanes
Taiwan based but not Taiwan operated, The worlds leader in chips is Taiwan Semi Conductor, and the world
Established in Taiwan in 1974, Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) (TWSE: 2317) is the world's largest electronics manufacturer.
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, has manufacturing complexes in 16 provinces of China, as well as in Beijing, Shanghai, Tian-jin, and Chongqing. The largest Foxconn factory is located in Longhua Subdistrict, Shenzhen, where hundreds of thousands of workers work at the Longhua Science & Technology Park, also known as "Foxconn City".
The United States and China signed an historic and enforceable agreement on a Phase One trade deal on January 15, 2020, The last week of Barack Obama’s presidency.
A side-by-side of Manson Girls with MAGAt Hurls is appropriate.
Let's hope the jurors give the same response to Trump and his cronies as Manson got.
No it is quite possible that the razor thin majority and minority in the house would not allow going after Thomas and Alito. It would be great if enough Republicans voted for some measures against those two criminals but chances are very poor as you say. However, taking the two to task in the halls of Congress and therefore in the news media might just be enough to cause the rest of the justices to take heed.
Going after Thomas and Alito for their corruption would be a good idea, but I am not sure the razor thin majority of the Democrats in the Senate would allow for it. I don’t think we could snag enough votes to do it. We also don’t have the votes in the House to run a normal impeachment process. The Republicans in the senate have only been too willing to defy their oaths of office at McConnell’s demand to acquit an obviously guilty president Trump for instigating an insurrection. They also sought to cook up bogus impeachment charges against President Biden. Those blew up in their collective faces when their Putin connected “source” got arrested for lying to the FBI, and the Democratic Senate squashed their bogus case against Secretary Mayorkas.
Kathy, Whether something is popular with a wide base of Republicans is immaterial, all it has to be is championed by the base, just look at the spectacle in Trump's trial. A rabid minority controls the Republican party, and a rabid minority is controlling the governance and judicial system of the country. And the rabid minority is patriarchal, and is using and have used their control to reinstate their total control over women and the family. A 21st Century version of Augustus Caesars law of Pater Familia.
Bribery and perjury are crimes. Don't need Congress to prosecute.
Yep, lots of in the Trump administration and Baron von Shitzenpants himself. None of them being prosecuted either. Thanks Merrick.
Someone should photoshop Speaker Johnson et al onto the Manson Girls photo and post it.
Republicans blast in neon their every political effort to minimize and trivialize their opposition,
no matter how vacuous or laughable. Such efforts keep the fires going for their base. It is not to convince, it is to add kindling to the fires that keep them daily engaged. On the other hand, elected Democrats, always alert to impose their intellectual image, and their massive base, are kept dispirited by lamenting the implausibly of this or that political move. They state the body of a possible tactic and almost immediately deconstruct it, saying it won't work, most of the time expressed in numbers, mostly in projected numbers at that. The fires of hope among America's Blues are routinely doused by this continued defeatism. Were all political possibilities followed through on, filed every time, against all odds, by elected Democrats, Blues would see the fight is alive. Beats the hell out of aw-shucking it, keeping Blues dispirited. The Reds are hip to this, the Blues not so much.
I understand what you are saying. The Democrats need to ignore the Maga people, and the Networks need to stop giving them so much press. I am not glue to the television to hear about his everyday fanfluken! What the people want to hear is encouragement and empowerment! Stop feeling doomsday defeat.
Who that was alive at that horrible time could ever forget the foolish women who protected that monster? They wasted their whole lives incarcerated. And I believe they came from upscale society. I have never understood that type of manipulation Manson had on those girls nor their weakness. Wasted lives.
Mike Johnson, Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas provide compelling evidence that the ignorance and arrogance born of indoctrination cannot be educated away. Alito & Thomas are obstructing justice by slow walking the bogus, Trump immunity case. Cannon is doing the same with the most important espionage case in US history. I agree with Thom we need some intense pressure on these lawless justices to retire. They've been drinking the GOP Kool aid so long they've deluded themselves into thinking it's up to them to save the country by installing their brand of corrupt fascism. The whole GOP is certifiable. They've ripped off the people that have toiled for them, to make many of them rich during the last 100+years, redistributed $50T from the bottom to the tippy top over the past 40 years with political bribery, now they want to enslave & silence them.
Great minds think alike lol. I posted on Facebook last night about the similarities between The Trump cult and the Manson Family. I do remember Squeaky Fromme being a leader of the family members not indicted for the murders (and now still in prison for trying to assassinate Ford in '75). They did Yoko Ono-like chants proclaiming Manson's innocence. They all carved Xs into their heads when Charlie did it. Squeaker of the House Johnson and his Squeakettes don't have Xs for identification. Just the red ties.
I agree 100% that "It’s time for corrupt, billionaire-funded Justice Sam Alito to step down or be investigated and impeached." "Should be" and "will be" are as different as night and day. We know Alito and Thomas are corrupt, immoral, fascist leaning, anti-democracy members of the Supreme Court. We know what they've done and where their allegiances lie. Yet, we the people, can do little to rid our country of these cancerous tumors who infect our country's soul with their greed and hatred.
The only answer to make a difference and save our democracy is to VOTE! Join like-minded groups working to positively impact the 2024 elections with the largest turnout of Democratic voters ever witnessed in an American election.
We CAN stop these leeches at every level of government by working together, ignoring the atrocities that sap our energy and, most important, registering voters. LETS'S DO THIS!
Thank you for the inspiration.
The rich owners of the press & media that American's get ignore the majority of corruption ongoing in society by the GOP and say doing so is a fair and balanced take on politics. No coverage for Dems and constant watch and coverage of everything GOP is no balance not to mention the education of the public in order to make good decisions in social justice. Big news has no shame.
Thom, something has to be done about Alito and Thomas how is this all Ali right. Thom there really are so many things to watch out for that’s happening right in front of all of us. The Supreme Court this is insane. Thanks Thom.
My first observation is on The Wisdom School column. All four things are true. Excessive human population is going to destroy us—in the First World because we consume and pollute too much, in the Third World because poverty engenders poor health and likely more and more lethal pandemics. As to the culture of corruption Thom describes, I fear it may never be broken, only modified by replacing one corrupt set with another. The driver is money, made sacred as speech along with the nonsensical creation of corporate “personhood” by our terrible SCOTUS. Historically, revolutions have been like fireworks displays—briefly brilliant, before things go back to what they were, with a change of characters at the top who soon succumb to the same blandishments of money and power.
Having said that, I would almost welcome a new revolution here, but for the reality that we have tens of millions of ignorant, likely irredeemable citizens, and too many of the best people would die. The morbidly rich might escape with private, highly paid security forces and fortress retreats around the world.
Which brings me to the issue of belief, or faith. I found religious faith when I was 70, six years ago, in the American Greek Orthodox Church. I won’t belabor why, here, except to say that I have found in it a truly Christian belief system with the wisdom to trust science, embrace the separation of church and state, and recognize we flawed humans lack the right or ability to judge the life choices of anyone, an authority given only to God when we fall asleep for the last time. But here’s the thing: belief, or faith, is unavoidable. I believe in science. I have faith in my doctors and my wife. I accept ob faith the existence of an infinity of things I have never seen, heard or experienced.
My belief in God, and my belief that God may welcome those following many path to his/her/its existence other than mine, is no different to me. But it does have a dark side. I believe in God because I have lost all faith in humanity, and my only hope is that there is something superior out there, to our species and the lives we lead or choose to lead. Our history has moments of great nobility and achievement. But to me, they are dwarfed by our embrace of greed, tribalism, violence, bigotry in all of its forms, the arrogance that has destroyed innumerable other species, billions of our fellow humans, and probably our planet in the not too distant future. Oh, I will keep fighting for what I believe (that word again) is right and good. But I do so in the firm expectation that I am only helping in my small way to delay the inevitable. I hope I am wrong. Selfishly, for my beloved grandson, my other family members, my many dear friends. More generously because I know there are billions of decent people out there. But as someone who has spent a lifetime obsessed with history, I fear my hope will prove a vain one.
Once again, I have to “thank” Thom for reinforcing my pessimism on almost a daily basis. That is no criticism. It is a reflection of the fact that he forces us to look the unvarnished truth in the eye, and galvanizes me and I hope others to fight despite the odds against us. For that, I really am grateful, as it prevents me from becoming comfortably numb, which would be the easy path.
It is a fact, that the denizens of the 1st world, are the contributors to global warming, and hunger in the the 3rd world
Bu the 3rd world is it's own enemy, or rather the need to breed, the need for orgasm is, as you look around the world, the most impoverished, the most famine ridden, the hungrier the population, the greater the birth rate. They are literally screwing themselves.
Exactly. And why? A combination of ignorance, religious opposition to birth control, and the fact they have little other than sex to entertain themselves. There are solutions, but they all require a massive first world financial and moral commitment, unlikely to be forthcoming in time or at all, really. Because greed is universal, and ignorance increasingly so in the 1st world as well.
Greed and ignorance are universal, but more prominent in the 1st world, from your perspective, because that is where you live.. When it comes to human behavior, foibles, and needs, there is nothing exclusive to the 1st world, that isn't found in the 3rd world.
When it comes to drives, fears, needs, desires humanity is undifferentiated.
People don't have sex to entertain themselves either. it is a primal drive.
Humans delude themselves into believing that they are superior to other animals, what differs us from them is our ability to control our drives.
Granted. Sex is also fun, probably in service of that primal drive. Somehow animals seem to manage their drives better than humans. With some exceptions in the indigenous world, where non-technological humans appear to have lived, as some still do, in greater harmony with the environment. Not that I envy them. I would have died young in such a society. Only an immense amount of modern medical care keeps me going. Functional, in pain, but content unless my mind starts to go, or I go blind, for then so must I go too.
The sex drive for most mammals is regulated by hormones and only in seasons that result in them bearing young in spring or when the weather and clime are favorable for rearing young.
There are some mammals ready for sex all of the time, at least among the males.
When I was stationed at what is now Iqualit, then Frobisher Bay, Canadian NW territory.
An Eskimo women showed up pregnant out of season, and the Mounties, who were god, the Mountie shack was opposite the orderly room, and when the troops lined up for pay call, the pregnant woman was at the window and she pointed out the dude who done the job.
He was of course jailed by the Mounties, he was sent off to prison somewhere.
The orderly room was separated from the outside by double doors, inside the first set of doors was the mail room, another of my jobs was putting up the mail, well one day after the mail plane flew in and delivered the mail, I walked into the foyer or room where the mail boxes were and there was a husky beating his meat with his hind foot.
The place was overrun with huskies, just before the first snowfall,the Mounties walk around shooting the huskies, to provide food for the other dogs. Coming out of the chow hall one day, I saw the carcass of a dog moving, when I got close it was a bitch with her pups inside living off the carcass. Dead dogs scatttered all around, if not for them, the living would have attacked humans.
A mile or two out in the bay, was an island they called Dog Island. The Mounties would round up dogs in spring, take them to the island, and let them loose, to devour each other.
A couple of Canadian D.O.T. (Dept of Transporation) offiicals came to visit, and wanted to see Dog Island. The boat they were in capasized, they later found them in the bottom of the bay, swaying back and forth with the current, half eaten by sea lice in their waders.
Quite the year for anb 18 year old
Such unusual proofs of the human urge controls there. I can of course believe it. My ex was born in Vancouver, raised first in Winnipeg, then Anaheim, now at age 80 (we split up jus under 40 years ago, when she moved there) in Kihei, on the island of Maui. But always Anglo-Canadian to the core. Never saw that side of Canada, though I only had one long excursion there, along Canada one through the three Western provinces, which were lovely, as were the people.