Leo instructed the GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit group and use that money to pay Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, documents show. The same year, the nonprofit group filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case. https://t.co/CKc8Kwb6yJ
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 4, 2023
This is, I have no doubt, gonna be another week rife with breaking news. So here’s a little recap of just one incident to get y’all into the right frame of mind…
Another day, another staggering incident of Supreme Court grift. https://t.co/C8XxfKrTvt
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) May 5, 2023
… The “landmark voting rights” case to which the Post refers is Shelby County v. Holder, in which the Court eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and through which Chief Justice John Roberts declared the Day Of Jubilee. That’s just in case you were thinking that this little bit of influence peddling was a victimless crime.
That figures like Leo and Conway are roped into this latest episode of payola regarding the Thomases is not just a happy bonus in which we all can revel, but also an indication that the long conservative project of capturing the federal judiciary wasn’t merely an ideological crusade, it was also the opportunity to do some first-class grifting along the way. There were a lot of very wealthy people whose pecuniary interests dovetailed nicely with the political effort to reverse all the progressive gains made back to Roosevelt — either one, actually…
Leonard Leo directed fake invoices to be made so that he could secretly line the pockets of the wife of a Supreme Court Justice. This is corrupt.
Also, invoice fraud is a crime. https://t.co/0A3f7X4yK4
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) May 5, 2023
HOLY FUCK: This case was Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the one that infamously gutted huge portions of the Voting Rights Act, ending the requirement for any new voting restriction bills introduced in any state to be “pre-cleared” with the Department of Justice. https://t.co/lPKVJel5YA
— Andrew Wortman (@AmoneyResists) May 5, 2023
More important context, "Justice Thomas’s friend and a former official for the Trump admin," is also Ginni Thomas' attorney and represented her before the Jan 6 Committee.
But please go on that the Justice has no idea about Ginni's political activities.https://t.co/iK2fsjfxDd https://t.co/3Cyf6hgoJJ pic.twitter.com/LWUFZVRgY9
— Pete Strzok (@petestrzok) May 5, 2023
"Another 25K" for Ginni Thomas?@RuthMarcus has questions: https://t.co/ZMt5WPTmLR
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) May 5, 2023
Unpaywalled (gift) link.
… What work did Ginni Thomas actually do for this rather significant sum? To be blunt, was this just a way of Leo funneling money to the Thomases — not just any money, but tax-deductible donations that must be used for charitable purposes? Did Leo use Conway’s firm as a cutout to avoid a direct linkage to the charitable organization? Were there other such arrangements in which Leo sent funds to Ginni Thomas?
And why the mania for secrecy? “Knowing how disrespectful, malicious and gossipy people can be, I have always tried to protect the privacy of Justice Thomas and Ginni,” Leo told The Post. That’s one explanation. But these were internal records — who’s gossiping about them? An alternative explanation: Leo didn’t want the Judicial Education Project, if the Internal Revenue Service or others inquired, connected to Ginni Thomas.
Then there are the questions about direct overlap with the business of the court. In December 2012, the same year that Ginni Thomas was receiving money through the Judicial Education Project, the group filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Shelby County v. Holder, which would turn out to be a landmark case eviscerating the Voting Rights Act. If his wife received $100,000 from a group with an interest in the outcome of the case, should Clarence Thomas have recused himself from the decision?
That’s a complex issue on which serious experts quoted by The Post differ. The federal recusal statute requires judges to step aside from any case in which their “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” There’s little risk here that Thomas was going to be actually influenced by payments to his wife; he was going to vote to cut back voting rights in any event, as he had previously. Of course, that shouldn’t end the inquiry. The question is whether the payments would raise doubts about the justice’s impartiality.
All this underscores the inadequacy of existing financial disclosure rules. In this situation, unlike others involving the justice, the issue isn’t whether he followed the letter or spirit of the disclosure law — it’s whether the law needs to be revamped. The rules require reporting only of the source (not the amount) of income — in Ginni Thomas’s case, Liberty Consulting — not the clients of the consulting firm. There’s no way of knowing that any money came to the Thomases from the Judicial Education Project via the Polling Company…
Auditors at IRS offices around the country furtively pass the propublica article to one another and contemplate the forbidden fruit of a tax enforcement case against a Supreme Court Justice in their idle moments.
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) April 6, 2023
Wow that Clarence Thomas story, woooo child, I really didn't think when the SC spent all that time softening corruption laws it was about them, specifically
— Lord Businessman (@BusinessmanLego) April 6, 2023
Of course, every good little helper gets their reward! (That’s one way to ensure they don’t talk to the wrong people…)
While advising Trump on judges, Conway sold her business to a firm with ties to judicial activist Leonard Leo – POLITICO https://t.co/1OVDkbww7t
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) May 5, 2023
anyway now the question is: was ginni absolutely shitfaced at 7:31 AM on a saturday when she recorded this gem or was she absolutely shitfaced at 11:31 PM Fiji timehttps://t.co/rHF6JjcYob
— inverted vibe curve: burgertown has fallen (@PatBlanchfield) April 6, 2023
Trivia Man
Every republican candidate, for every office down to local school board should be asked about these incidents. One incident per question so they can’t obfuscate with @every case is different, I’ll have to look into all of them and get back to you.
make them own it at every level.
Major Major Major Major
One thing I don’t quite get about all this is that Clarence Thomas has never, ever needed an ulterior motive to be a paleocon shitheel.
Trivia Man
I say EVERY LEVEL because these cases are affecting every level. City clerk race? Ask about the VRA cases.
School board? There are education races. Mayor? City council? I guarantee Thomas has ruled on something odious with a shady influence back story.
There go two miscreants
It’s good to be informed, but how unfortunate to start the day being confronted with these utterly repugnant people. Glad I read On The Road first – the vultures were more attractive!
Chyron HR
Isn’t creating a sham nonprofit to bribe judges and calling it “Judicial Education” a little on-the-nose?
MazeDancer
When did Leonard Leo figure out there was no one to stop him? When did Harlan Crow?
There is no one to investigate, No one.
As long as it is White Collar Crime, nothing will happen.
Shalimar
@Major Major Major Major: Clarence has been whining about retirement off and on for the last 20 years. Maybe it has been made clear that the payoffs all end when he retires. No explanation for why Crow and Leo wouldn’t want him to retire when Kennedy did though.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Aussie Sheila
Maybe the best bet would be to legislate to restrict the jurisdiction of the Court over particular matters. It would mean an opposition elected afterwards could overturn it, but I prefer policy fights to be out in the open and fought politically, rather than held close by a legal clerisy that pays homage to an unelected Court immune from democratic accountability.
Every time.
It is hard to have political arguments when they are held in a Court over which no elector or his/her elected representative, has any power.
dave319
@Major Major Major Major: Well, Thomas knowing full well his sole qualification to the bench was his function as HW’s extended middle finger to Thurgood Marshall’s legacy is bound to be a very bitter pill for even a corrupt, amoral bootlicking race traitor opportunist to swallow. indeed.
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
Easy: If one can monetize it, why not? Only a sucker leaves money on the table.
Major Major Major Major
@OzarkHillbilly: yeah that’s the only thing that really makes sense. He’s never once declined to stick to his pretty clear ideology.
OzarkHillbilly
And I’m outta here. Granddaughter’s day and all that. G’day to all.
Matt McIrvin
@dave319: Thomas’s driving motivation is supposed to be his resentment that liberal affirmative action cheapened all of his accomplishments, and implied some kind of dependency on white largesse that he never asked for–but he was blatantly appointed by GHWB to replace Thurgood Marshall just because he was a black conservative. If he really believes all that, he should hate conservatives more than anyone.
Maybe, on some level, he does.
p.a.
We know questioning Campground Clarence is a non-starter, but Defender-of-the-Institution John Roberts should be so bombarded with inquiries he has to hire extra interns just to process them.
And hopeful that some nationally prominent Dems with the stones just come out and say, “this court as constituted, and its decisions, are corrupt and invalid.” Won’t change what’s been done, but might stop the rot from progressing if they’re under the microscope.
Kay
@Major Major Major Major:
They’re all convinced they would have made truckloads of money in the private sector so working in the public sector is a huge sacrifice.
They watch as conservatives in the private sector rake in billions as a result of their rulings and they feel they deserve a cut. There’s no evidence of course that any of them would have been wildly successful in the private sector, but they have enormous egos so they just assume they would have been. It’s why they’re all so sour and unpleasant and whiny – entitlement.
Another Scott
@Major Major Major Major: You work for who pays you. It doesn’t matter if you agree with them on issues before hand or not.
Federal employees are paid to work for the public.
It’s that simple, I think.
Don’t get distracted.
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
It just pays better to be on the Right. They have huge tranches of money from billionaires who buy policy and they spread it around to everyone. It’s like organized crime. Everyone stays onboard because everyone gets a cut. None of these people could make anywhere near this amount of money for this little effort anywhere else but in Right wing politics.
MomSense
Judicial activists legislating from the bench. Remember when that was the thing Republicans warned about? While bitching and moaning about how all they wanted to do was protect the courts from evil, Democrat judicial activists, they were creating an elaborate money laundering scheme to recruit, nominate and confirm far right judges who would tear down all the rights for those people, aid in the proliferation of war weapons, and grant businesses and the wealthy rights associated with being a person. Fucking judicial activists
Amir Khalid
I’m curious. Does wine at US$5,000 (RM22,500! *gasp*) a bottle really taste that much better than a regularly-priced wine?
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
I have no idea but I wouldn’t mind finding out.
Kay
@MomSense:
It’s kind of gratifying to watch if you went to law school you were subjected to their sneering, arrogant lectures on “principles” and how liberals were all wishy washy while conservatives had RIGOR and STANDARDS. They were insufferable.
Turns out it’s all bullshit and their entire legal movement is dirty- corrupt. Everyone is getting paid by the same nine billionaires and they’ll happily overturn even their own precedent if it pleases their patrons. It’s a real pleasure to watch everyone find out this emporer never had any clothes. They’re clownishly, comically corrupt.
sab
@MazeDancer: Not true. Democrats get in trouble all the time, even when they have done nothing illegal. Every Democratic president since Nixon was almost impeached has had friends, family and staff harrassed with legal threats.
RedDirtGirl
I know you guys don’t have a lot of time for Debbie Downers here, but I am having a real hard time dealing with all the shit coming at us every day. Any tips from my betters here?
MomSense
@RedDirtGirl:
Rage knitting with really sharp needles helps me maintain a simmering rage. I have friends who do needlepoint and cross stitch just so they can stab fabric thousands of times per day.
RedDirtGirl
@MomSense: :)
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
OT – My father-in-law passed away last night with his INCREDIBLY aggressive bout with melanoma. I’d call it a roller coaster, but it was more like a nightmare elevator plunge, literally six weeks from diagnosis (I was the one there with him that day), three weeks after we relocated him from Hilton Head to my sister-in-law’s in NC. Wife visited all last week (she’s spent about a month with him, off and on across 4 trips) – he’d looked bad early in the week, crashed some Thursday am, then had a weird rally Thursday night/Friday am. He was eager to resume Keytruda and to cancel the DNR. When she left, she was really pleased and had some hope that he’d be leaving the hospital. By Friday night, it all turned to shit. Failed a swallow test, was told that the cancer had actually spread to the esophagus since the first scans, that he was no longer a Keytruda candidate, and that they were bringing in the palliative care team.
He watched the Derby, had me make a bet for him by phone, and was joking with my wife on the phone about his bad choice yesterday morning. By yesterday lunchtime, sis-in-law reported that she felt like the death rattle had started (25 hours is usually the max) and that his responses were low – they talked to him for a couple of hours and he responded sweetly until he said “night night” – I think those were his final words. By 2 pm he wasn’t responding to any stimuli, and then just took some final breaths at 9 pm or so.
It was kind of a perfect storm – he’d spent so much of his time waiting hand and foot on a lazy domestic partner that wouldn’t do her own PT with both real and imaginary problems, yet was constantly running to various doctors and chiropractors to the point where he ignored his own signs. That was compounded by a lackadaisically mediocre standard of care provided by golfing, part-time doctors in a retirement community that didn’t bother trying to recognize why an American man on a standard American diet of sodium and fats would have low sodium levels, when it is a known clinical symptom of a cancer process (this was in August, when he would have at least had a fighting chance – we had come for a visit, and he wound up hospitalized the whole time).
Amir Khalid
@MomSense:
22,500 ringgit will get you a pretty decent used car in Malaysia. I can’t even imagine what kind of beverage would taste 22,500 ringgit worth of nice.
MomSense
@Kay:
Let’s not forget that their grand legal theory, originalism, is a bunch of fucking bullshit. They just wanted to put a serious sounding name on their goal of making America great again which has always been an America of by and for rich white guys. It’s the only constant in the shit they do.
Steve in the ATL
@RedDirtGirl: maybe drink a $5,000 bottle of wine every day?
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: @Amir Khalid:
It’s not about the taste, of course. It’s a status thing. It’s like lighting cigars with $100 bills.
“I have so much money that the cost means nothing to me. The fact that you find it shocking shows that I’m richer / more important/ better than you.”
“Conspicuous Consumption”.
Grr…,
Scott.
Kay
@MomSense:
As is Textualism! which I was also lectured on by preening, patronizing conservatives.
They rammed through an absolutely absurd reading of the 2nd Amendment which has led us DIRECTLY to the gun violence bloodbath we have today – no one actually reading the text or looking at the history could have come up with that insane interpretation of 2A, yet our esteemed legal scholars on the Right did. They pulled it out of their ass. That’s why the we get the petulant demands for respect from them. They know the whole bullshit scam has been exposed.
The Thin Black Duke
@Matt McIrvin: Without “liberal affirmative action”, house negroes like Clarence were able to jump the line and advance in a racist system because they had no problem tossing brothers and sisters who wouldn’t tow the line under the bus. However, a level playing field means he can’t delude himself into thinking his fraudulent accomplishments in White America are due to him being an exceptional Negro who pulled himself up by his bootstraps.
MomSense
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
I’m really sorry. It’s so hard for the family when it happens so fast. Condolences to all of you.
brantl
The Republicans on the Supreme Court, aren’t judicial activists, the are bought-and-paid-for graftees. It’s that simple, and that direct.
MomSense
@Steve in the ATL:
Ha! You are our only hope for answering Amir’s question about $5,000 wine.
tokyokie
@Amir Khalid: Like you, I don’t drink, but I would think one would have to guzzle a whole lot of the pricey spirits in order to develop the ability to discern one from another. Attaining such a level of discerning taste is not an endeavor I’m interested in achieving, even if I could afford to do so.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@Kay:
👍
satby
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I’m so sorry. Condolences to your wife and you on the loss of her father to such a relentless disease.
James E Powell
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
Sorry for your loss.
trnc
This seems logical, but we don’t actually know that. Every once in a while, we get surprised at how someone votes or rules, and it’s entirely possible that a technicality or some obscure part of the case may have made him decide differently if his palm hadn’t been greased.
Not to sound high on my own supply, but I think we really need to point this out loudly every chance we get, because otherwise, any corruption can be excused with “well, that’s how he felt, anyway.”
MomSense
@Kay:
Totally bullshit. Wasn’t Ed fucking Meese one of its early proponents?
Geminid
@MomSense: After Strict Constructionism was brought into disrepute during the Civil Rights era, reactionary legal theoreticians needed a new brand, so they came up with Originalism.
Baud
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
My condolences.
tokyokie
I read somewhere long ago that upon joining the Supreme Court, John Paul Stevens put all his assets into a blind trust managed by a fiduciary who invested it largely in market funds. And he told the fiduciary to give him a heads-up whenever any stock that was in one of the market funds in the blind trust had an interest in a case before the court, whereupon he would recuse himself.
Stevens, of course, was the last decent human being nominated to the court by a Republican president.
trnc
Honestly, take a break and focus on something you love doing and come back after a few days or a week or whatever when you’ve recharged. We can’t be effective agents of change when we’re on the brink of losing it.
JMG
@tokyokie: My daughter is in the business of selling wines like that. She has a professionally trained palate, BUT, the training primarily was in estimating how good such a wine will be before it’s bottled, before it’s really even drinkable. It’s the expensive guessing game on which the fine wine industry is based. In her opinion, taste differences in fine, rare wines do exist and can be determined, but the main difference between a $multi-thousand wine and a say, $200 bottle is simply supply and demand. Much less of the former is produced, while the supply of rich people who want to show off with wine remains relatively constant.
Kay
@trnc:
It also chips away at the policy justification for granting them lifetime appointments. That was intended to protect them from political interference. Now we have the worst of both worlds- we have wholly political actors taking huge donations from interested parties and we can’t get rid of them with an election.
They did this to themselves. No one should feel sorry for them. They were handed the huge gift of a lifetime appointment by the public and they refused to police themselves. They’re still refusing efforts at transparency. They barely respond to inquiries from the elected branches at all, as in, RESPOND- say something. Clarence Thomas sent some ridiculous PR hack out to respond to allegations. Can he not speak? Why can’t we hear from him directly?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@RedDirtGirl: Zumba helps me because I can pretend I’m dancing and I still get the endorphins from exercise.
Reading a book, if you’re not too distracted to do it. Last night there was a discussion of Christie and Sayers. Maybe something like that? Or a good movie or TV show. Ted Lasso, if you get the right streaming service,
Matt McIrvin
@The Thin Black Duke: The corruption is just the icing on the cake–the idea that this guy is driven by a devotion to abstract principle so intense that even his political enemies have to grudgingly admire it… it just melts in the face of that.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Oh wow. I’m sorry. I remember you posted when you went with him for the diagnosis.
eclare
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
I’m sorry for your family’s loss.
rikyrah
Black people said from the beginning that Thomas was a sellout. We were right 😒
rikyrah
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
So sorry for your loss 🙏🏽😢
Suzanne
@Major Major Major Major:
Because, this way, he gets to be a paleocon shitheel AND get rich.
¿Por que no los dos?
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Have a great day 🤗
catclub
@Chyron HR:
The non-profit can get money from foreign sources and not report those either. Of course, you first incorporate a US company, then siphon funds to the US company (or the NRA) and then to the sham non-profit. Russia is calling.
sdhays
@trnc: Yes, the continued gravy train is part of ensuring that no one feels any freedom to reconsider. They don’t want to risk a justice’s evolution after they’re on the court. Also, someone who is as ethically bankrupt as Clarence Thomas could conceivably be bought by someone else; this blocks anyone else from trying to buy his vote because he’s already bought.
The whole argument about “well, he would have ruled that way anyway” seems pretty similar to Trump’s “I’m doing my criming in public, so it’s legal” hack of the legal system. It may be a legal` loophole (or not), but it doesn’t make it any less awful.
Kay
@RedDirtGirl:
I think getting outside is the best cure. That “touch grass” thing has truth to it. I’m a gardener so it’s easy for me – it’s where my hobby is located- but doing anything outside would work, I think. Walking, birding, playing some kind of sport.
I had work done on the foundation in the early spring and they tore up a huge area of grass. The foundation work was expensive so first I hired someone to do the grass but he’s a pain and he was taking forever to come so then I decided I could save and do it myself. So it’s this huge job- big enough that I had to get my son to help me Saturday- I just can’t turn soil for four hours like I used to. He knocked the whole soil prep out in two. Oddly enough in 50 years of gardening I have never grown grass so I’m obsessed with it – I can grow any other kind of seed so this should be fine, right?
Quiltingfool
@rikyrah:
And this is why I listen to Black people; in particular, Black women.
Amir Khalid
@Suzanne:
I guess the riddle here is, what’s the value proposition for bribing Clarene Thomas to do what he would have done for free?
catclub
@sdhays: A judge gets a $10k bribe from side A to decide their way. He Gets a $15k bribe from the other side, too.
He calls both lawyers to his chambers, returns the extra $5k and says “Why don’t I just decide this on the merits”. He is still corrupt.
PAM Dirac
@JMG:
That’s pretty much the answer I got from an expert I know. Up to somewhere near $150-200/bottle the increased price makes it possible to choose to do things that have an effect on the wine taste, things like hand picking, hand sorting, high quality oak barrels, decent plot of land with excellent soil and climate, etc. Of course it is still a matter of taste. All these choices can make a wine taste unique, but whether it tastes better is a matter of taste.
The Thin Black Duke
@Amir Khalid: Once again, Amir drops the mic.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: The law of diminishing returns enters the chat pretty quickly with alcoholic beverages. A $200 bottle of wine is *better* than a $20 bottle. But it’s wine. There’s no objective way it can be 10 times as good. As Another Scott says, it’s about rarity and status.
Quiltingfool
@Kay: I have experience with growing grass. We had our best luck with an ag company-we bought a blend of grasses. There was one grass that germinated before the others, so it provided a bit of shade while the others began to germinate.
Since we have shitty soil (basically clay and chert rock, very little topsoil – I’d say your soil is much better), after seeding I mulched heavily with straw and then a good bit of watering.
Birds love the straw. We had mourning doves patrol the yard constantly.
Jeffro
All. Of. This. (unfortunately)
it’s why it’s an absolute MUST that we get tax rates on high earners back where they used to be – disarm the people who are buying SCOTUS.
RedDirtGirl
@trnc: Thank you. That’s good advice. It’s just hard to shut it out when it’s everywhere.
O. Felix Culpa
@Amir Khalid: Maybe the money functions as guardrails, to keep him in line. And as a reward for toeing the line.
Carlo Graziani
Isn’t this sort of thing exactly what the Racketeering-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute was created to address?
DOJ bringing a RICO indictment against this mob. That would be something.
sdhays
@Amir Khalid: Consider an alternate world where Clarence Thomas doesn’t get millions of dollars (at this point, I’m assuming there are still vast sums we don’t yet know about). He’s a walking ball of resentment, and now that he’s on the court, he’s “abandoned” by the billionaires and has to “sacrifice” by being on his “meagre” Supreme Court Justice salary.
Maybe he starts lashing out and votes with the liberals occasionally on critical decisions with some outlandish concurrence. Or maybe he just retires and lets a Democrat replace him. Or maybe he just stews. Who knows? This investment keeps him locked down and content (as content as a rage-ball of resentment can get).
Betty Cracker
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: So sorry to hear that. Condolences to all who loved him.
RedDirtGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’ve just started reading again after realizing that I was spending too much time watching shows. Working to find quality escapism.
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: It is encouragement to keep doing what he’s doing. It keeps Ginni out there, doing what she’s doing. It is an inducement for him not to retire, because just about anyone next taking Marshall’s seat is going to be much, much better than him as a jurist (but much worse for the RWNJs).
And it normalizes their corrupt system and antics. “Join our team and get a little (or a lot) something on the side. We’ll take care of you. And protect you…”
The monsters wouldn’t be shoveling money at the Thomases unless there was something in it for them. They’re transactional, even if the timeline can seem long.
Grr…,
Scott.
RedDirtGirl
@Kay: Good idea. I live in Brooklyn, but have a friend who is an avid gardener, in her own space and around the neighborhood. I will check in with her to see if there are any projects I can plug into.
E.
@RedDirtGirl: Same. My wife was caught in the active shooter zone in Atlanta last week. Climate change, politics, work, family, the madness of our culture devouring itself and this beautiful planet. I do not know what to do either and the advice “do something you love” is well meaning but can sound so hollow. Action is the antidote to despair —sometimes.
Math Guy
@Amir Khalid: With a nod to all of the previous responses, I personally think Cooper and Thief – a red blend – is the best value for wine. About $28 per bottle.
Betty Cracker
I read a piece recently that theorizes the relationship between FedSoc justices and right-wing billionaires works like the relationship a Mafia boss has with people who can be useful to him in some way, like Don Corleone and the funeral director. The people whom the boss calls on for favors aren’t his equals, but the boss collects chits to ensure they’re on call to do his bidding. It’s transactional, but not necessarily in a direct, quid pro quo way.
It’s all deeply corrupt, of course. But since the SCOTUS redefined bribery to exclude basically everything besides a paper check with “bribe to purchase a favorable ruling” noted in the memo line, maybe it’s not even illegal unless you can nail the corrupt bastards for failure to disclose or pay gift taxes, etc.
Mel
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I am so very sorry for your loss, and sorry that your father-in-law’s diagnosis was so delayed. My nephew lost his best friend to melanoma at age 28 – diagnosis delayed b/c doctors thought he was too young, active, and outwardly healthy-appearing to be ill, despite symptoms.
I will be thinking of your wife, of you and your family, and am sending you all love. I know that there isn’t anything to be said that can make the pain of such a profound loss less, but please know that so many people here, and I am sure in your circle of family and friends, are here for you.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Math Guy: Mr DAW is a fan of Charles Shaw wine. $3 buck Chuck. I’ve decided it would be a mistake to educate my taste buds further.
SFAW
@MomSense:
In my never-ending quest to help you: I have a VINTAGE
boxbottle ofRiuniteRippleMad DogFranzia that I’ve been saving for a Very Special Occasion. But, I am willing to let it go for a mere $3,000 — a 40 percent markdown!Please let me know where I should have it delivered (by armed courier, of course). Payment is cash-only, in small, “unmarked” bills.
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m so old, I can remember when it was Two-buck Chuck. Thanks, Biden, for your damned inflation!
Or I would remember, if I could remember anything these days.
Central Planning
@Amir Khalid: I don’t know if expensive wine tastes better than wine us proles usually buy, but I can confirm that 25-year Macallan scotch ($2300/bottle) is infinitely better than the stuff I can afford (and I don’t like scotch)
Suzanne
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I’m so sorry.
kalakal
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
I’m so sorry to hear of your loss.
So fast and so devastating.
My condolences to you and your family
frosty
@Kay: Grass. Oh my. My next-door neighbor hired True Green. A neighbor across the street did his own work and his lawn looks great*. I looked at my tiny front yard with it’s 20 years of deferred maintenance** and decided to try to do the same. It’s complicated – just tell me what I should do and when!!!
The backyard will be a mix of grass and clover, when I get to it. Did you know clover was a perfectly acceptable ground cover in the 50s before we decided to nuke it and kill all the bees?
*Great = standard pristine suburban lawn
** AKA neglect
NotMax
@RedDirtGirl
IIRC both the Brooklyn Museum and BAM are within easy reach of where you’re at.
Frankensteinbeck
@Major Major Major Major:
Bribing someone who is on your side already is the best investment. You go from likely getting most of what you want to guaranteed getting exactly what you want. They are happy to take the bribe, and you know they’ll deliver. They won’t ever have second thoughts. And in doing so, you are funding what is now one of your strongest allies/servants so they’re able to do more for you in the future.
frosty
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I’m sorry for your loss, this is a sad and enraging story about a crappy medical response and missed opportunities, on top of losing your F-I-L.
Mel
@SFAW: Do you have any cases of that rare, exquisite treasure known as Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill tucked away in your cellar, awaiting a clandestine, invite-only, VIP auction?
Elizabelle
I am a little amazed that Ginni has not ended up under the yacht. Yet. Or briefly missing at sea, a la Robert Maxwell. Fell off his yacht or pushed? We will never know.
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
My condolences on the death of your father in law. He seems to have had a relatively peaceful last day; last words “night night.”
It seems a lot longer than six weeks when you told us about your FIL’s (delayed) diagnosis. My sympathies for all that you and your family have been through. Am glad your wife got to spend a lot of time with her father.
Suzanne
@Amir Khalid: Assurance. Control. It’s always a good idea to have someone owe you a favor. You never know when or how you’ll need to collect. Having someone owe you one is always a great thing.
Oddly, this is a thing that apparently Rom DeSantis doesn’t get. A couple of weeks ago in a thread, I commented that it is weird to me that he doesn’t have the social awareness of knowing that doing favors for people is really important to building relationships. And not just corrupt relationships, either, though that helps.
Steve in the ATL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: reading a book is great advice. I’ve been much more relaxed since I started reading this great biography of Clarence Thomas!
@rikyrah: hard to disagree with the theory, posited here years ago, that the franchise, at least for federal elections, should be limited to black women
@Math Guy: good call. My only objection is that for a quarter of a century every time I see or hear the word “blend” it comes out in Marisa Tomei’s voice in “My Cousin Vinny”
Geminid
@Quiltingfool: The quick-germinating grass seed you planted may well have been annual rye grass. It sprouts in 4-5 days, while perennial fescues are slower. People often blend in 10-20% annual rye grass to perennial grass seed.
Anyway
@RedDirtGirl:
We finally had a gorgeous weekend in the Northeast and was out cabin camping with a few girlfriends. Fireside chats, hiking, kayaking, grilling, beers — balm for the soul. I didn’t know the politics of everyone and we steered clear of dicey topics. It was great.
Steve in the ATL
@Anyway:
Hmmm…not sure my wife would let me do this
frosty
@Mel: Strawberry Hill? Icky sweet. Now Thunderbird, there’s a wine! It pairs well with french fries.
“What’s the price? Fifty, twice!”
frosty
@Steve in the ATL: Rim shot!! Treat yourself to some $5,000 champagne.
Elizabelle
@RedDirtGirl: There are the Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers books to get through! Numerous threads by Subaru Diane on them; including last night.
Stepping away from the news and doing something else; taking some small action, is good. You will still hear, via osmosis and the blogposts.
Botanic gardens, too. I was so happy to see that ours in Richmond VA finally wised up and are hosting evening hours, Wednesday to Saturday, through to early fall. Watch the sunset on the grounds; drink some adult bevs or just get a good walk in.
And, always, pet a dog or cat. Do something nice for one.
Jeffro
@Mel: Boone’s…the only “wine” that says right there on the label:
SERVE ICE COLD
lolol
tobie
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I’m so sorry to hear this. It’s devastating trying to make sense of final days. I went through this in January with my father who nose-dived health-wise and died within 5 days. Medical professionals ignore old people or take their time, when timely interventions matter above all else with the elderly. It’s heartbreaking. I hope in time your father in law’s kindness and good cheer and pleasure in things large and small (like the derby) will be a solace. My condolences to you and your wife.
Elizabelle
@MomSense:
Rage knitting! Love it.
We are going to be a nation of Madame Defarges.
Anyway
@Steve in the ATL:
haha, luckily I don’t have one of those …
Ken
Excellent advice, since many make this mistake. Why, I have been at parties where the wine boxes are just sitting out on the picnic table in the sun, next to the potato salad and hamburger buns.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
(Opposition candidate’s bus was pelted with rocks in eastern Turkey. Later he had a huge rally of support.)
Fingers crossed.
(via Oryx)
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I’m sorry. :-( Remember the good times.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Ohio Mom
@RedDirtGirl: Make an extra effort to take care of yourself — eating right and regularly, sleeping enough, throw in a few walks or other type of exercise (maybe take the train to the beach and stroll the boardwalk, I wish I could), try distracting yourself with small entertainments or socializing, and give it a few weeks.
If you still feel crappy, consider whether you are depressed and maybe give an anti-depressant a whirl.
Nobody knows why we come down with depression, it can be a sneaky thief. It’s not a personal failing. And sometimes it leaves on its own, as inexplicably as it arrived.
I am finding the current news environment dizzying. It seems to me as many good things have happened in the last two years as awful. I think the pace is picking up in both directions. I find myself holding my breath on the debt limit showdown. Still, my life went on after many other similar (Republican generated) fiascos. As Another Scott often counsels, Hang in there!
Taken4Granite
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Consider yourself lucky. Where I live it’s six-buck Chuck. And my local Trader Joe’s carries a number of European wines–including some moderately famous DOCs–around that price point, so I tend to go with that instead.
Tom Levenson
@Carlo Graziani: Donning Ken White’s hat for a moment:
!. If you think it’s RICO, it isn’t RICO.
2.If you still think it’s RICO, refer to no. 1.
(Disclaimer: IANAL, nor do I play one on TV.)
Soprano2
@RedDirtGirl: I find exercise helps me. I do Jazzercize and yoga, but YYMV. Go for a walk, or find some other physical activity you can do that you enjoy – listen to music or podcasts while you walk if you have to (as long as the podcasts aren’t about the upsetting things). Check out of the news for awhile every day – it helps.
Tom Levenson
@RedDirtGirl: What kind of escapism do you like? Trollope’s Dr. Thorne is a short, sweet, 19th c. drama. (And there’s a good adaptation by the same guy who did Downton Abbey if you want to tiptoe back to the screen…)
Someone here in one of the Christie-Sayers thread pointed to a free book site that sent stuff to the Kindle app. I used it to get several Sayers’ works, and when I can did it up again, I’ll do that for others.
But what’s your poison? SciFi? Fantasy? Romance? Mystery?…
Unsolicited advice…Finest Kind!
Soprano2
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Interesting, one of the things that put my mother in the hospital before she had her stroke was extremely low sodium levels. She had no appetite at all, and was having to force herself to eat. I didn’t know it could be associated with cancer.
I’m sorry for your loss, sounds like you had quite the roller coaster ride. It sucks that he found out so late.
SiubhanDuinne
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
Words seem hollow, especially after such an emotionally-draining few weeks, but you and your wife have my deepest condolences. I’m glad your father-in-law was in such cheerful spirits even as recently as yesterday morning, and I hope that memory is a comfort.
PJ
@RedDirtGirl: I find that music – making it and listening to it (particularly live) is a big help for me. Jalopy (just down the road from you, I think) has classes where you can play and/or sing with others, which is a good feeling.
Ohio Mom
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: My deepest sympathies to you and your wife. You did all the right things, being there and helping your in-laws navigate these new-to-them waters.
An acquaintance very recently lost her husband to pancreatic cancer; she was also thrown off by his rally shortly before his death.
I can’t help thinking that much of the at-sea feelings we experience when witnessing a loved one passing are old hat to medical professionals. “Oh yeah, here comes the rally,” they must think. Why they leave us to flounder in our ignorance, I don’t know. Back in the olden days, when everyone died at home, there must have been a folk wisdom about these things that has been lost.
Kay
@frosty:
I made my own seed mix. Bluegrass, perennial rye and white clover. Clover is good for the soil. Like 70, 20, 10. I ran out with about 20 sq ft to go and had to fill in with Scotts off the shelf – the seed is bright blue. I guess they dye it so you can see where you seeded (good!).
I did it like starting a garden, except less depth to dig. So bought topsoil and had that delivered – they bought up subsoil with the foundation work so clay that had to be lightened with top soil – spread topsoil, rent a tiller and do one pass, then rake with a bow rake to even it out, spread seed, rake again, spread straw, water. The raking is the heavy work – seed bed prep – moving dirt. My son did all of it- I don’t think I could have done it. Twenty years ago, but not now.
bnateAZ
BuT WHaT AboUT Sotomayor?! cries the media
SFAW
@Mel:
No Boone’s Farm — sadly, I used it to celebrate … to celebrate … eh, who can remember?
But I might still have a few bottle of Annie Green Springs, if you’re interested.
Tom Levenson
@Central Planning: There are oddities still in the fancy tipple game.
Last year in CA I bought a 1995 Dalva Colheita port. Not Vintage port, which is its own thing, but a take on what’s called LBV (Late Bottled Vintage) port. About $40 from a Woodside liquor store. (Locals will know that means an extra rich-people’s-neighborhood tax.) It was spectacular, a genuinely distinctive experience of someone’s approach to an old craft. But it lacks the conspicuous consumptions signifier (it was not “true” vintage port, nor from one of the c. 18th century main Anglo-Portuguese port houses). So i got to drink far above my income bracket as long as I didn’t mind not being identified as a Silicon Valley MOTU.
I look for that kind of status inefficiency a lot in my search for fancy drinks.
Tom Levenson
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: So sorry to hear of your loss. Condolences to you and all who loved your FiL.
Matt McIrvin
@RedDirtGirl: I came home from a terrific vacation outside the United States only to be hit with two solid weeks of gray, cold and drippy weather, especially on the weekends, and between too much Internet and throwing myself into catch-up work that ate up all the intervals when the weather was OK, it’s contributed to grim feelings.
Last weekend was much nicer. Getting some exercise in and then getting out a little over the weekend helped, but I think I need more of that.
My problem is that there’s a part of me that feels guilty about escapist/self-care activities, like I’m palliating myself with denial of reality, and a strong person should be able to face all the horror of the world head-on. (Sometimes “respite” threads on these blogs can actually make me feel bad because they imply that things are so bad that the respite is needed.) But it can just break you.
Baud
@RedDirtGirl:
Have you tried hanging out on Twitter?
Jk. I hope you find a way to decompress.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Because they don’t respect public service in the first place. They only went into it in order to hurt the government.
DougL
@Kay: I think your point is the most relevant one. The right wing movement is a giant grift operation that is swimming in money. Among the many reasons we need huge tax hikes on the super wealthy. A democracy can’t function when comparatively so many can effectively pay off so many more. Their paychecks depend on an expanding pyramid of marks. So our “problems” must always get worse to keep expanding the base.
Kay
@frosty:
My lawn isn’t pristine. I have huge oaks that take up all the water and nutrients – anything that doesn’t starve around them they try to shade out. I love them though.
The grass is like a decorative mulch for the oaks. It just has to be green, somewhat consistent from afar and hold the ground from getting muddy when it rains :)
japa21
@Betty Cracker:
Considering how far back some of these stories go, it’s pretty clear to me that that ruling was motivated by self-preservation.
Paul in KY
@RedDirtGirl: Shit was alot worse for regular people in the Middle Ages.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin:
Ahhhh, Protestant guilt.
Just as real as Catholic guilt, just a slightly different flavor.
Paul in KY
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Very sorry to hear of his death. Glad you got involved to make his last months better.
Central Planning
@Tom Levenson: I think a great TV show would be something like Pickers, where some wine/liquor enthusiasts travel across the country to small mom-and-pop liquor stores to look for not-well-known hooch and then give it a try.
To be clear, I would not buy a $2300 bottle of anything. That scotch I had was at a corporate event, and the minimum bar tab was not met. They let us go top shelf to get there. One of the VPs asked for it, so I went along for the ride. I could be a scotch guy, but apparently only with that one.
There’s a tequilla that’s like $250/bottle (Tears of Llorona) that I’m told is really good. I like tequilla but won’t spend that on a bottle. Thankfully I found a local pub that has it, so I can get a shot to try it once. That’s more my speed.
frosty
@Kay: My backyard is similar. “Moss? Well, OK, moss is green too.”
strange visitor (from another planet)
@RedDirtGirl: it’s a beautiful day, first one in a long while. maybe hit coney island, breezy point or riis park?
Citizen Alan
@The Thin Black Duke: There is no greater form of affirmative action then that afforded to people of color who are willing to loudly support white supremacy or to college educated women who loudly support the patriarchy.
rikyrah
@Kay:
All about the grift.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
I’m so sorry for your loss
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: The cachet of having a supreme court justice as your lickspittle. Gives you some points in Billionaireland ™.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Break it down like a fraction. Tell it, Kay.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin:
Top level athletes incorporate rest periods into their training programs. If you want to assuage the guilt feelings, simply look at your time away in the same way.
OverTwistWillie
@Amir Khalid:
It is a Veblen thing, and sets the market for $200-$300 bottles. Only nouveau riche dumshits would pay that much. Their paymasters run into the local package store for a couple of bottles of whatever.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
Everybody preaching this morning.
CLAP CLAP CLAP.
Baud
@Citizen Alan:
👍
UncleEbeneezer
@MomSense: I dunno. After about a year of chemo and fairly positive results, my Mom’s cancer escalated fast and she was in an ICU and gone within a few days. My wife’s Mom spent the last year in and out of ICU’s until she finally went on hospice care and we buried her last week. At the end of the day I feel like I got off much easier because the suffering was much shorter. A fast demise definitely sucks in its’ own way but a long, drawn-out one is just exhausting.
UncleEbeneezer
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: So sorry for your loss.
Baud
@Paul in KY:
They didn’t even have blogs back then.
UncleEbeneezer
@Matt McIrvin: I try to view it as: it takes strength to do self-care and step away from everything. Because it goes against so many of our instincts.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Knocking back a bottle with a Golden Boy is the only way to go,
:)
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
TIL I am very strong.
Tom Levenson
@Central Planning: Same. I’ll spend on a shot or a glass someplace. I don’t have the palate or training to get to the fine distinctions that make a $200 (retail) bottle an different experience from a well made $40 one from the same region and wine making approach.
I mostly like the occasional taste of an old wine–there’s enough difference between a 20 y.o. wine (that can take that kind of aging) and an identical offering that’s, say, 5-7 years old that everynow and then it’s fun to try. But I’ve only once spent $200 bucks on a (half) bottle in a liquor store–and that was someone else’s money. (I got an inflight magazine to pay me to drink Chateau d’Yquem and write about it. That was a good pitch ;-)
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: You could tell I’m a child of lapsed American Baptists? But they’re more sensible about this sort of thing.
Raoul Paste
@Matt McIrvin: Doing the self-care component IS facing the horrors of the world dead on. More power to you.
Betty Cracker
@japa21: IIRC, it was a unanimous ruling, and it opened up the floodgates for all kinds of corruption and sprang corrupt folks who were then serving time! I’m not a lawyer, but it seems like the only remedy available would be legislation that more broadly defines public corruption so that it covers the wildly corrupt antics of the McDonnells, Thomases, etc. But the chances of that seem vanishingly small.
Tom Levenson
@NotMax: Dear FSM.
Eat the rich instead.
Soprano2
We love Marco Negri Moscato d’Asti. If you like sweeter wine, it can’t be beat. The d’Asti imparts small bubbles, less than champagne. Here it’s around $15.00/bottle. It’s the best Moscato I’ve ever had.
NotMax
@Tom Levenson
A favorite of Jefferson.
In all frankness, cloyingly sweet dessert vino.
rikyrah
@The Thin Black Duke:
Black folks have always known what Unca Clarence was about.
A sellout Sambo muthaphucka.
Who got everything he ever phucking had because of the sacrifices by people like Thurgood Marshall.
So, he gets the ladder extended to him, and he chooses to pull up that ladder so nobody else can benefit.
His self hatred has never been an issue with Black people. We always look at his self-hatred with pity. It’s the fact that he can manifest his self-hatred into policies that hurt other Black people is what we can’t abide by.
He was always mediocre with the exception of ass-kissing for White people, which was evident from the very first stories about him.
Ketanji Brown Jackson is brilliant, and deserves to be on the Supreme Court.
Thurgood Marshall used the law to literally change the law for MILLIONS, as well as used it to get this country to live up to its creed. Of course, he should have been the first Black person on the Supreme Court.
Clarence Thomas was boot-licking Uncle Ruckus who shucked and jived his way to a Supreme Court seat. It’s a reason why he was a phucking MUTE during arguments for about a decade. Brilliant for the court? Please. He wouldn’t even stack up intellectually against other Blacks jurists appointed by Republican Presidents. His only skill was being an azz-kisser a sellout.
Soprano2
@Tom Levenson: We had a customer who wanted an expensive tequila. Our manager told him how much she would have to charge if she bought it for him, and he said OK. Then, when she charged him for it, he complained! Go figure…..
SFAW
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
So sorry for the loss of your father-in-law.
Central Planning
@Tom Levenson: It seems to me (and probably one of the reasons I’m not independently wealthy) that if companies sold smaller sizes (375ml or even 200ml) of booze, they would get many more people to try their expensive stuff for a relatively small investment.
This could potentially open up a bigger market for them. Since more people are trying the expensive stuff and there is finite supply, prices can go up due to more demand.
I’m not in the liquor business, so what do I know?
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid:
It’s like cars. A Toyota Camry or Honda Accord will do anything that most people reasonably could want from a car. A 15-30 bottle of wine is the same. A BMW or Mercedes does the same things, but is a bit more luxurious and has more performance. A Porsche or Ferrari is more rarified. It does fewer things than the Toyota or Honda, but it does them very, very well and at a much higher price point. As one moves up that price chain, there are three types of people who want to buy in. The first is those who can actually appreciate the differences (the expert drivers). The second is those who aspire to be in the first category, but are not (yet?). The third is those who have a lot of money have been told that the car or wine is better and don’t understand why but will shell put for prestige purposes. The last are the most common (in several senses of the word).
NotMax
@Tom Levenson
Try the priest.
;)
Paul in KY
@frosty: My feeling on the lawn (and I’ve had one and mowed it since 1988) is that as long as it is green in colour and can be mowed to a level height, then I’m fine with it. Once it turns red or blue or yellow, then we have problems.
Soprano2
@rikyrah: I read the book the two female reporters wrote about him and Anita Hill, “Strange Justice”. In it, they said he showed one face to white people (especially those he thought could help him get ahead), and a completely different face to black people. It’s why I think people like John Danforth were telling the truth when the said they couldn’t believe Thomas would do the things Anita Hill described him doing – Thomas never talked or acted like that when he was around white people. It’s a perverse type of “code switch”.
Ksmiami
@Amir Khalid: no. It doesn’t. It’s just for bragging rights
mrmoshpotato
@There go two miscreants: Gonna go check out On The Road myself.
These Rethuglican bastards…
Omnes Omnibus
@Tom Levenson: I remember reading a (pretenitious wine snob) story in which the narrator noted that he, having not grown up rich*, would never have the palate to tell more than whether a wine was good and that subtleties of the truly elite vintages were beyond him.
*Poor, in this case, meant a good school and Oxbridge, but no family grouse moors, etc.
Ksmiami
@Central Planning: they offer half bottles etc at certain restaurants. It helps popularize brands among the .05 percent
Tom Levenson
@Central Planning: Back in the pre-Dot Com crash days there were some very fancy wine-focused restaurants that would serve really special stuff by the glass. Veritas in New York was the one I went to a few times. That was great–I got to taste some stuff I never before (or since) would have been able to justify by the bottle, and, once I got recognized as a regular at the bar (never the very expensive prix-fixe restaurant) I would, occasionally, get a taste of somethign a Wall St. party left behind in their conspicuous-consumption-over ordering of bottles. Which is why I have a few sips in my memory of the best 1950s year for Bordeaux, for example…
I haven’t seen any places like that for a while (and am not doing that kind of fine-dining more than once or twice a year anymore). But I agree–getting the punters in the door would seem like a smart move. Like the B-class of Berkshire Hathaway stock.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Your life was generally nasty, brutish, and not well documented….and short too. Also.
Tenar Arha
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: My condolences. May his memory be a blessing.
mrmoshpotato
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: My condolences to you and your wife. RIP to your father-in-law.
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: A calm and sober assessment of Justice Thomas. Well said.
NotMax
@There go two miscreants
Did someone say vultures?
:)
Ksmiami
@rikyrah: Preach! And the current sc is a sham and either needs serious reform or incineration. ..
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ohio Mom:
Adam has speculated that several GOPers like Greene, Gosar, Gaetz (hey, same beginning letters!) , etc want to use a default to immediately end aid to Ukraine
ETA: With McConnell saying he and his caucus will filibuster any clean debt ceiling bill that comes to the Senate, is the effort in the House to get a discharge petition going dead?
Soprano2
@Ksmiami: Some more expensive wines also sell splits in stores. We used to get some kinds of sparkling wine in splits. We lost several bottles once when our canoe overturned, it was sad.
Ksmiami
@OverTwistWillie: Truth… the billionaires I’ve known have pretty pedestrian (but in fairness) yummy tastes tbh and aside from a special event, they don’t really feel the need to show off w fancy wine… a decadent locally harvested strawberry milkshake excites them more.
Manyakitty
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: terrible news. So very sorry. Peace and love.
Ksmiami
@Soprano2: yeah.. I do have some funny rich ppl stories about showy guys ordering splits at restaurants and still being incredulous about the price.,,
frosty
@Paul in KY: That’s been my philosophy on lawns, too. But since we may be selling the house in the next few years I figured I ought to make the front and the side look normal, for curb appeal. The back doesn’t matter quite so much.
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It would need to be a 4 or 5 trillion dollar coin. But if matters become dire, I think the administration would use the 14th Amendment argument instead of “minting the coin.”
RedDirtGirl
@Ohio Mom: I am already struggling with depression, and have got the medication part sorted out, finally, after a very dark winter. Also dealing with elderly parent issues, which as we all know, is a beast of it’s own.
Thank you all for your suggestions.
Sure Lurkalot
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: My sister passed quickly after a terminal cancer diagnosis…a prognosis of 6 months whittled down to a week. That my sister and I were able to be with her and that she suffered minimal pain were blessings.
Condolences to family and friends.
Betty Cracker
Have y’all noticed that MSM outlets are a tad more accurate when describing the debt ceiling standoff this go-round? This weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to hear NPR correctly frame what the parties are fighting over WRT the debt ceiling, i.e., whether or not to pay debt that has already been incurred, rather that pretending that it’s in any way analogous to reining in household spending. It’s a small thing, but NPR tends to be notoriously both-sidesy, so I’ll count that as progress.
NotMax
@NotMax
Which sadly brings to mind the much, much, much too early demise of Kent Rogers.
Ksmiami
@Central Planning: there’s way more involvement in distilled high end spirits that makes them more worth the price such as size of the producer, aging, barrel type, processing and additional rarities. Plus, you can still store it after having a dram. Once wine is opened however…
Geminid
@frosty: Have you applied lime? Lime usually helps grass in the mid-Atlantic states, and it’s fairly cheap.
E.
@Paul in KY: Not strictly true. Worse in some ways, better in others. People in the Middle Ages still led meaningful lives marked by joy and sorrow.
Ksmiami
@Geminid: it’s going to be the 14th. And I’m pretty confident that the SC will not want to be blamed for default. It will still hurt our standing and the dollar primacy in the world, but Biden will have no choice. He does need to be on air every day though exposing the GOP as traitors
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
While still far from ideal, I do find the media to be less deferential to the GOP soon than they were one or two decades ago. You can find a greater number of fair articles nowadays.
cmorenc
@Kay:
Clowns become scary when their antics are no longer harmless – Adolph Hitler was a clownish character who was hilariously ridiculous when drained of his homicidally menacing capacities – which is why the “Downfall” parodies are so funny. But not so much while his German armies were still potent forces, still rounding up Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other people the Aryan Reich viewed as undesirables.
Of course, corrupt and mean-spirited ideologue that he is, Thomas is light-years from the Hitlerian class of evil clowns. Nonetheless, the purposes to which he puts his clownish corruption make him a scary type of clown…judicial version of the Joker from Batman.
Omnes Omnibus
@E.:
Better in what way? Are you suggesting that peoples’ lives today are less meaningful and unmarked by joy and sorrow?
NotMax
@Ksmiami
A genuine malted milk carefully constructed from scratch by a skilled soda jerk who takes pride in his/her work is an apogee of delish.
Baud
@E.:
Technically, it is strictly true.
Ksmiami
@NotMax: Exactly my point.
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The House Democrats’ plan to advance Rep. DeSaulnier’s bill through a discharge petition is still in play. I think they intend to start collecting signatures May 16.
The idea is to amend the bill with a debt ceiling proposal yet to be determined, if they can surmount procedural hurdles
Ed. But don’t hold your breath! This question will still not be resolved by this time next month, I believe. It’s like a sumo wrestling match combined with a highway game of chicken.
Ksmiami
@RedDirtGirl: Good dark Chocolate and developing a new taste in old cinema helps too…
catclub
I sure hope they make the senate GOP filibuster a clean debt limit raiser.
geg6
@Amir Khalid:
Having had the opportunity (through my sister, a dining room manager at a fine dining establishment, and her boss, owner of said establishment that has one of the best wine cellars in America) to taste some very fine and expensive wines, no. It tastes great and all but not that much better than a $100-$200 bottle of wine. Or even some $30-$50 bottles.
Kay
@frosty:
People are funny with growing grass. They keep telling me “it isn’t going to work!” What? Why not? What a thing to say.
There’s apparently a huge group of people spreading grass seed every year and it never comes up. Must be crazy profitable to sell. I think they’re not preparing the ground properly but we’ll see if mine comes up. It may all be a conspiracy by Big Lawn.
catclub
@Ksmiami:
traitors and economic saboteurs, or economic terrorists.
geg6
@MomSense:
This is exactly why I started doing cross stitch again after nearly forty years. I needed something to do to take out my rage every day in a constructive manner.
Ruckus
@Shalimar:
No explanation for why Crow and Leo wouldn’t want him to retire when Kennedy did though.
No explanation is needed for the obvious reasons- grift and corruption. The Thomases sold their souls (or whatever the hell one wants to call whatever it is that they sold to the highest bidders – everything might be an appropriate description – even when those weren’t worth spit – or is that shit?)
It seems to be interesting that the rethuglican party will sell everything for a bit of money. Of course that is what they worship, the money from grift and corruption. Look – they must be right, someone is willing to pay them well to be crooked as all fuck. He makes almost a 1/4 mill per year as a public servant and she makes millions taking the payoff for his “decisions.”
Baud
@Geminid: I thought June 1 was the default deadline.
Unlike all of you, I say we default and heighten the contradictions.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
If he really believes all that, he should hate conservatives more than anyone.
It looks like he doesn’t have a soul to sell so he sold what he does have, his judicial duties. Worth far more anyway.
Jeffro
@Ken: mmmm…lukewarm Boone’s and potato salad that’s been sitting out in the sun a while, yes sir…
E.
@Baud: okay then I think your definition of “strictly” is blinkered. I don’t have a time machine and most writings that remain from that era reflect the interest of the very wealthiest, so it is not an answerable question, “strictly,” but some would say that living at a time when our actions toward the earth are provably suicidal is a kind of downside. It’s a matter of totally unverifiable opinion colored by and thoroughly fraught with ideological opinions about “progress” and what a good life is. Is a shorter lifespan always worse? Is access to more plastic doodads always better? But now everyone go laugh at the weirdo before observing the high temps yesterday in SE Asia. You know that won’t ever happen here, to you and me.
E.
@Omnes Omnibus: No, I am not suggesting that. Do you know why?
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Certainly the notion that “he was always going to vote that way” doesn’t negate questions of impartiality, does it?
Jeffro
I see Matt Bai of the WaPo has an op-ed up advising President Biden on how to “solve” his “VP Harris” “problem”…grrr.
The “solution” iiiiiiiiis…for Biden to do what he’s already doing, which is keeping VP Harris on the ticket and featuring her prominently in events, ads, etc. Like a normal ticket, which they are.
Thanks Matt Bai!
Hey Post, can I have Matt’s job? I’ll do it for a tenth of whatever you’re paying him.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Cannot readily find a clip of the compromised nuns holding black mass from 1977’s film version of Joseph Andrews but it’s an eye-opener.
Meanwhile,< Ann-Margaret. ;)
Geminid
@Baud: I don’t think June 1 is a hard and fast deadline. Default seems to me to be more of a process when it comes to the federal government. It’s not like a bank or a business, where a superior authority can place it in receivership. The federal government is the superior authority.
If the debt ceiling question is not resolved by June 1 or soon after, we will definitely enter into a period of increasing economic uncertainty. That will probably manifest, among other ways, in a drying up of credit. This will be a big economic stressor, but I think that’s what it will take for a resolution.
opiejeanne
@NotMax: True, and we had to learn to make our own because most of the time the malt we ordered contained no malt and was merely a nice milkshake.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
It is. I’m guessing Congress could always raise the debt ceiling by enough for some more breathing room for further negotiations. If that’s what Geminid had in mind?
ETA: Never mind, Geminid already answered
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
I’d bet that it doesn’t. The real taste test for some is that they can afford it and the plebs can’t. Seems strange that some will sell their souls that are worth so little for so much. Must be that shit is worth more than anyone sane can imagine.
lowtechcyclist
@Ksmiami:
If that’s how it goes, and Biden makes it clear all along that interest on the debt will continue to be paid no matter what, then it shouldn’t affect the role of the dollar.
I continue to be nervous about the Bogus Scotus – too many ideologues.
My arguments for the platinum coin continue to be: (1) it’s a free play – if it’s tried and doesn’t work, we’re no worse off than we already are, so why not try it? – and (2) who exactly would have standing to challenge it? Nobody is in a position to claim injury, no law is broken.
Worst that can happen is the Fed says they won’t take it. If that happens, the Administration moves on to the next thing on the list.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Geminid:
Edited: A default needs to be avoided entirely, economic stressors like you describe included imo
BTW, when you say a drying up of credit, I’m assuming this would include consumer credit cards, correct?
What would happen to money in American bank accounts? Should I withdraw some money from my bank just in case? Or would it not matter? I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have cash for emergencies
Omnes Omnibus
@E.: No, I don’t. Hence my question. Reading your reply to Baud, I do get the impression that you feel that people are mocking you with their responses and I want assure you that I was not. I was looking for some clarification of what you meant.
NotMax
@Ruckus
But for Wales?
E.
@Omnes Omnibus:
1. Maybe read the sentence the way you would read this one: “Sure, he lived in a small and crappy house compared to mine, but he still led a joyful and meaningful life.”
2. Overwhelming and decisive observational evidence.
Baud
@E.:
Maybe climate change will eventually make things worse for us than Europeans of the Middle Ages experienced. But it hasn’t happened yet, and I think, no matter how depressed people are, it’s beyond ridiculous to suggest that Americans in May 2023 have it worse than Europeans in the Middle Ages had it, and IMHO we lose credibility with normies when we try to suggest otherwise.
NotMax
@Baud
“Our forbears had buboes, why can’t we?”
//
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think rates for auto loans and construction and home loans will spike, and that will get a lot of people’s attention.
There will of course be other economic effects as well. Banks may be very stressed, and the situation could get very scary compared to what it is now.
gvg
@Suzanne: If he had not been constantly bribed, if he had been treated more like an ordinary black lawyer and judge, he would have had the true facts of our society stamped in his face….probably. Arrested for driving into his own neighborhood after dark or something. He would have known other black people who weren’t all super rich, he would have seen the racist side of those white people who are so careful to be nice to Justice Thomas. Can’t guarantee how it would go, but it would not have gone the way it did with those fancy bribes and careful continual flattering. His life has been manipulated and he is not the man he would have been. This corruption has been going on a long time. It was in him from the start, but the bloom is much larger and darker this road.
I read that he gave speeches disparaging his sister as being on welfare for life, raising her kids to be for life when she only took time to care for a sick relative and went back to work after. Why didn’t he help support the relative so it didn’t come to that choice? He has always be selfish.
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
As I’m sure you well know, it isn’t the taste, it’s that it’s expensive and you and I can’t afford it. And they can, because they sold whatever the part of themselves they had to sell, in this case all parts, for some money and the glory of fucking over other, “lessor” people. (That lessor is doing a hell of a lot of work here…) They are whores, with zero scruples or even a desire to look for them. And it wouldn’t matter if they looked, they will never find any – they sold them long ago. For $1, and they scored because their scruples were priceless, as in worth jack and shit.
Princess
@trnc: This is really important. Almost everyone shifts their views and grows and develops in some direction, for better or for worse. We’ll never know how Thomas would have shifted because he was paid to never change. No one can argue he would have voted the same in every case. We’ll never know. The appearance of having been bought is more than enough to make him permanently corrupted.
tokyokie
You usually are. If this country is to have a livable future, then it will be under the leadership of Black women.
E.
@Baud: It’s not that climate change will make things worse for us some day. That is an unjust description of my position. Some day the sun will burn out too. I am saying that we are now confronted with the Real world in a way far more horrifying than at any time in the past. I don’t like living at a time when most everything we do has a sizable chunk of murder attached to it. But don’t fret about the normies. I think it’s pretty clear they are not listening to me.
Layer8Problem
@NotMax: A malted. So difficult to find.
Baud
@E.: You’re entitled to your opinion about how you see the word, but I don’t think any objective facts support your position comparing the current world to past world (and that’s ignoring the problem is that we can predict how the past turned out better than we can predict how the future will turn out).
rikyrah
@gvg:
From the moment the truth about his lies on his sister came out years ago, Black folks had his number.
Denigrated AND LIED on his sister in order to kiss White folks’ azz.
E.
@Baud: The world is currently most likely objectively better for most currently alive human beings than it was for then-alive humans in 11th Century Europe, yes. Now do the other species.
Baud
@E.: There are more farm animals, and they are probably better treated than in the past. Wild animals have suffered, I grant you that.
Paul in KY
@frosty: Good idea to make it look better when selling.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I am very concerned about all the extinctions of animals, birds, sea life, insects. Humans are destroying their habitats and climate change may be an adaptation too far.
Burmese pythons though. I wish they had a self-destruct program.
Paul in KY
@E.: I think mostly true. Those who happened to live in times of plenty had betterer lives, in general, I would assume. You were really at the mercy of the government (if you had one) though.
Paul in KY
@Kay: You usually have to sow grass seed right after it rains or even when it is still raining, IMO.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Alot of that ‘Game of Thrones Shit’ (trained fighting men with armour/weapons whupping up on poor defenseless peasants) actually happened from time to time. I think alot of poor people lived in perpetual fear of what/who might come over the horizon.
Also the political entity nominally in charge of your area had waaaaaayyy more power than modern non-totalitarian dictatorships do).
Captain C
@Matt McIrvin: Perhaps he also hates himself for allowing himself to be used as that pawn, deep down.
Paul in KY
@E.: Not sure on that too. A lot of phenomena that we just shrug at was pretty scary to very ignorant people. No one knew (in general) how diseases were transmitted, etc. etc.
Paul in KY
@Elizabelle: Burmese pythons can be eaten. Lot of meat on them.
Paul in KY
@Captain C: He should hate himself. There’s alot to hate.
Ruckus
@Paul in KY:
Not everyone in the current world is better of, of that there is no question. However, as someone who has lived a somewhat lengthly time (and yes, I’m not close to the oldest here) there is zero doubt that this country is a better place for a hell of a lot of people that when my life started (in the late 40s) were not treated even as humans. Is it good enough? NO, not in many ways, we have a long way to go to make it reasonable for those still left behind. But we have made some major strides, and we could make more if so many people weren’t trying so hard to screw up everything for people they hate for zero actual reasons, other than hate for hates sake.
Kay
@Paul in KY:
lol. Grass magic
I’m treating grass seed like any other seed. My seeds usually come up. I think these seeds will too.
Paul in KY
@Kay: You are supposed to dance through the rain while scattering the seeds and singing ‘tra la tra la tra la’.
So I’ve been told…
Paul in KY
@Ruckus: Good points, sir.
cain
@Ksmiami: he should specifically ratchet up the rhetoric and naming them as traitors. Because in a PR vacuum, fox news and others will step in and try to blame Democrats.
There should be some very serious work with people who understand propaganda and make sure that everything is properly seeded – because you know that the washington DC press will not give the benefit of the doubt to Democrats.
Elizabelle
@Paul in KY: been thinking someone needs to make them into cracklicious Python Chips. Hickory Smoked, Cajun Style, Wasabi. Have heard one issue with pythons is parasites (and they are), but I think high temperature cooking could take care of that. Make them foodsafe, environmentally friendly snacks. Give mammals a break!!
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Monty’s Python Bites!
Miss Bianca
@Elizabelle: “Python Cracklin’s”…?
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@rikyrah: Popped in after way too long, saw this thread, and your response.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Ksmiami
@cain: sometimes I do think that we need more Dems that are street fighters and definitely not uniters- at least or with a political party that lives on tire rims and anthrax..
Carlo Graziani
@Tom Levenson: A boy can dream…
Paul in KY
@Elizabelle: I thought it was parasites on them and not actually in the flesh (like a large Amberjack). Certainly cooking the hell out of the flesh would kill any internal parasite.
Paul in KY
@NotMax: Oh, you should copyright that!
Eyeroller
@Kay: Our experience was that the seeds sprout but the long-term issue is keeping the grass alive. Too much shade, too little fertilizer, on and on and on. Most grass grown in the northern part of the US is native to Europe (including “Kentucky” bluegrass) and not that well adapted here, overall. There is a serious invasive where I live (Japanese stiltgrass) which has taken over many areas because it’s shade tolerant and deer don’t eat it. Americans tend not to like true native grasses because they tend to go dormant in summer.
Chris T.
@Paul in KY:
You forgot a key word: dance naked through the rain…
Paul in KY
@Chris T.: Oh!!! So that’s why it didn’t work…
Will remember that next time :-)