BREAKING:
The Senate Judiciary Committee has just voted to approve subpoenas for conservative activist Leonard Leo and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow in its Supreme Court ethics probe.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 30, 2023
I feel like this development got overlooked yesterday, in the general news barrage. Per Huffpost, “Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Subpoenas In Supreme Court Ethics Probe”:
After a combative two-hour hearing, the Senate judiciary committee on Thursday approved subpoenas to compel the appearance of billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow and conservative legal activist Leonard Leo.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the chairman, bypassed 177 amendments filed by Republicans and abruptly held the vote in response to a last-minute GOP effort to thwart the entire process. Every Republican walked out of the hearing as soon as the vote began. The final tally was 11 Democrats voting yes to the subpoenas, no Republicans voting at all.
Crow, a Texas real estate magnate, became the focus of scrutiny after reports by ProPublica revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas did not disclose millions of dollars in gifts Crow gave him in the form of luxury travel and accommodation, real estate purchases and private school tuition for years. Leo, the architect of the conservative takeover of the Supreme Court, also found himself in the spotlight after a ProPublica report showed that he helped arrange an expensive trip, paid for by another conservative billionaire, that Justice Samuel Alito failed to disclose.
Durbin previously sent letters to Crow and Leo asking them to voluntarily appear before the committee for questioning. But both declined, claiming that the separation of powers somehow inoculated them, despite being private citizens, from having to appear before Congress. Their refusals prompted Durbin to pursue subpoenas…
The subpoenas are part of an investigation by the committee into the Supreme Court’s failure to adopt a binding and enforceable ethics code that would prevent violations like those committed by Thomas and Alito. Durbin, along with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), sponsored legislation to impose such a code on the court…
An attempt to approve the subpoenas for Crow and Leo on Nov. 9 ended after Republicans introduced 88 amendments that covered everything from immigration to subpoenaing the private flight records of the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the committee’s action was an “important step” in ensuring accountability for Leo and Crow, “who have both used their power and wealth to gain undisclosed access to Supreme Court Justices.”
“Having these very same billionaires who are pushing cases through the Court have the ability to travel in jets and go to resorts and buy them gifts ― it’s just outrageous,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Today, Senate Democrats are taking action to look under the hood and make sure we increase transparency, which these subpoenas would do.”
The fact the Repubs are willing to beclown themselves to this extent shows just *how* dangerous such an investigation will be for their whole corrupt enterprise. There will, of course, be endless legal delays along the way… which is one more excellent reason to make sure President Biden is still in the Oval Office next February…
The Senate Judiciary Committee investigating Supreme Court ethics votes to authorize subpoenas of Clarence Thomas benefactor Harlan Crow and Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo as Republicans walk out in protest. pic.twitter.com/Smix3Rsscs
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) November 30, 2023
NEW: Dems on the Senate Judiciary just suspended the rules that would have allowed Republicans to procedurally drown subpoenas for Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow with amendments. All republicans walked out. Dems voted to subpoena Crow and Leo. EXCELLENT.
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) November 30, 2023
Senate panel subpoenas Harlan Crow, Leonard Leo in SCOTUS ethics probe
It’s about time!
Clarence Thomas is most corrupt justice ever
He must be held accountable
Congress must pass Ethics Code for top court at once
It’s urgent#ProudBlue #DemVoice1 #Freshhttps://t.co/WZfdKJchSj pic.twitter.com/bBvATwJywG— warren swil (@warrenswil) December 1, 2023
moops
Since all the relevant information was in the HuffPost link, perhaps BJ can dial back all the free links to The Musk website and driving their traffic? Or perhaps just start taking screenshots and forgo the links to X ? I realize we will never get some frontpagers off X, but it would be nice to start throttling our support for the platform.
Gaffer
@moops: Yes! My ad blockers don’t allow X or Twitter reposts to show up, just a window that says blocked. And I like it that way. Too bad all the posts that I’ve enjoyed here for years are not visible to me. Dump your X reposts please!!!!!
piratedan
Since the GOP has established their “precedent” of ignoring subpoenas from Democratic Party controlled institutions, I fully expect these people to do the same. Is there anyone out there that can suggest a way to get compliance (not that we should expect honesty from them if they do appear I suppose)?
frosty
How about addressing the content of the post instead of whining about the links. AL has said repeatedly that she’s going to use the sources that give her the information for her posts. For now, that’s Musk’s (rapidly swirling down the drain) toy.
Flame away!
Baud
“We’ll fight this all the way to the Supreme Court!”
jimmiraybob
Steve “Death to the Administrative State” Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist, is not having a good day, “They want a civil war, they got one!”
Oh boo. Bless your little heart. But, you should really calm down. You don’t want to do an Andy Breitbart right before your boy pulls his first felony guilty verdict.
BR
@Gaffer:
Yeah. I’d love it if the links are to public social media, not X (which requires logins and is toxic) and bluesky (which requires logins and isn’t public). But I understand that the fragmented social media landscape is going to be what it is. I’m happy using Mastodon and connected networks and there are folks I read there that aren’t elsewhere, so that won’t change.
Freemark
For all the money I pay for this top 10,000 blog and the large amount of that that goes to the front pagers they should be willing to spend their time screenshotting and/or researching better links than from the sight formerly know as Twitter.
middlelee
Every once in awhile a few commenters on BJ remind me of one of my mother’s favorite sayings: “You’d complain if they hung you with a new rope.”
What Frosty said.
anitamargarita
@Freemark: 👍
Bill Arnold
@Gaffer:
That is your choice. Enjoy it. Including any consequences.
Dark Patriot
@middlelee: My mother used to say that as well.
Bill Arnold
@moops:
Twitter is losing money. AL is helping them lose money.
Baud
@middlelee:
New ropes are scratchier.
CaseyL
They’ll ignore the subpoenas, and the Senate will refer the matter to the DOJ, which will charge them both with contempt, which they will litigate all the way to SCOTUS, where…. they own at least two, and possibly four, of the Justices (none of whom will recuse themselves).
This should be interesting.
WaterGirl
@CaseyL: Surely those justices will need to recuse themselves because of their personal relationships with the people before the court.
schrodingers_cat
@frosty: I am so tired about the incessant whining about Twitter links. Here is your cookie for posturing about Twitter. For all its flaws it still remains a good aggregator of news sources.
Dan B
@frosty: I have sympathy for people who want the source of the rampant antisemitism to crash and burn. The ‘fuck you’s’ help with the crashing and the anger at Muskrat.
Bill Arnold
@CaseyL:
There needs to be more trials of these corrupt people and their corruptors in court of public opinion.
Just the facts; that they have the overwhelming appearance of being corrupt, that they have a fascistic disrespect for the law and should be treated as such.
Leto
@WaterGirl: we’ll test those new “ethics” rules out, lickity split! They’ve definitely proven they have the highest moral fiber…
schrodingers_cat
@frosty: Did I tell you, I brought myself a charcoal sketching set from General’s.
Jeffro
So…I was out all day, did I miss any news or anything? =)
Bill Arnold
@schrodingers_cat:
Very much agreed.
I block facebook entirely (including the trackers) through various means. (FB is at least as deserving of [destruction] as Musk-owned Twitter IMO.) That means that facebook links are dead links, for me, and probably not for others. That is my choice.
Alison Rose
Whew, thank God someone finally had the courage to speak up about Twitter links!!!!!!!
That was sarcasm. Y’all are like the 500th people to complain about it. AL has addressed it numerous times and shouldn’t have to keep doing so like some kind of penance. You do not pay for this blog, and you are not forced to read it. If seeing embedded tweets bothers you so much, you are — and this is true — free to not read the blog! You can read whatever else caters more closely to your personal transitory moral standards*, perched atop your high horse. And stop trying to make fetch happen.
(*Do you use Facebook? Apple products? Google? Shop at Amazon? Or Target? Watch NFL? Or any one of an endless number of Big Companies That Are Bad And Are Run By Bad People? We all patronize in one way or another companies run by absolute shit-weasels. I do, you do, everyone does. You aren’t better than other people because you choose to abstain from some of them.)
Jeffro
Btw absolutely HUGE opening here for the Dems to run as the anti-corruption and anti-hypocrisy party. It ties together every last little thing about today’s GOP, from SCOTUS to Santos to the Florida GOP chairman and on and on and on.
(also has the benefit of being true) =)
BeautifulPlumage
AL: thank you for all the time you spend to keep this a 24/7/365 blog. Your work is very much appreciated by most of us. Please ignore the moopers & gaffers & bb’ers.
As for Senate subpoenas, I’m hoping one of the lawyerly commenters will compare this with Bannon and Susan McDougal (I think she was jailed for refusing a congressional subpoena). Thanks in advance.
Baud
@Jeffro:
We voted to expel you from the blog.
BellyCat
I’m sorry but as much as I think of the 3 brave liberal USSC souls, their lack of overt objection to what is taking place is nothing more than “silence = complicity”. The graphic is missing three photos.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: It’s also possible to read the twitter posts that are on the screen in a post, without actually clicking on them. That way if you are concerned about giving Elmo clicks, you are not personally giving him any clicks.
japa21
@Alison Rose: Tell us how you really feel. You’re not usually this reserved.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alison Rose: I drove home from work in a gasoline powered car and I enjoyed it.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: This, too. I don’t understand why people think just seeing a tweet somehow puts more money in Muskrat’s pocket.
Alison Rose
@japa21: I’m trying to be less of a heinous bitch as an early New Year’s resolution. Ha ha no I’m not.
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s the pillory for you, Omnes.
Baud
Now I feel bad buying a cyber truck.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: That is not a truck it is a botched highschool science project.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alison Rose: How do you know that I won’t enjoy it?
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Bicycle or bust, you evil capitalist, corporate centrist.
BeautifulPlumage
@WaterGirl: sometimes “X” wants me to go to it to run a video but I can usually find the same stuff on other sites or use nitter. There. Are. Options
And thanks for all your work & time for this full service blog. I plan to restart my Patreon giving after the new year
Alison Rose
@Omnes Omnibus: Now we’re getting into Balloon Juice After Dark territory.
MikefromArlington
These corrupt financial cogs of the Republican Party need to be broken by any means.
moops
@Alison Rose: J H C. People. I for one have Never complained about X links. This was my First Time. I have also not seen this mountain of complaints that apparently have drowned this blog in the past so you have my bowing and groveling apologies for even daring to bringing the subject up.
I withdraw it entirely and now praise the use of X for keeping this blog up to date and relevant.
Carry on as if this was never mentioned.
Lyrebird
Ditto ditto.
Anne Laurie had a word, not muckraker, but related and even more specific. I am so thankful she does that for us.
BeautifulPlumage
@Alison Rose: they probably also whinged for threaded posts…
danielx
@WaterGirl: Ho ho ho ha ha…stop, you’re killing me!
ETA: since it’s an open thread – I was informed this week I have to have rotator cuff surgery. Any jackals that have undergone this ordeal who can tell all?
schrodingers_cat
@moops: Every post with twitter links has had some variation of your comment in it, of late. So complain away but don’t be surprised if you get some pushback from people like me after they have read the nth version of the same comment from the nth commenter where n >> 1.
Subsole
@BellyCat:
I would cut Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson a little slack. She is fairly newly-installed and still has a bit of an excuse, I think.
The rest though? I am in total agreement.
BellyCat
Let’s complain about process (SchXhitter) rather than the topic at hand!
moops
@BellyCat: The topic at hand required some complaining? I thought the subpoenas were a thing we wanted.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alison Rose: Sun’s been down here for an hour. And my head is still a little messed up by the death of a 65 y/o heroin addicted alcoholic poet.
BellyCat
@BeautifulPlumage: Not being a truly old fart (yet) and having to work for a living without internet all day (at my employer’s expense for both connectivity and my time wasted), I am thusly whinged.
Bill Arnold
@Alison Rose:
The rendering of the tweets with an image puts a load on twitter’s servers. I’m sure that they are counted by the twitter ad people as impressions, though since ads are not shown on embeds, they really should not be counted more thank like 10 percent.
On a couple of browsers, the embeds do not render for me, and show up as the embed text like in non-FPer-comments, which is often fine, and those links definitely do not touch twitter unless clicked on.
Subsole
@jimmiraybob:
I would give good money to watch that slimy little waste of carbon actually forced to fight an actual civil conflict.
I’m not even talking bullets. I mean just street-action. Hit him with pepper spray and you would see an entirely new level of not knowing whether to shit or go blind.
moops
@schrodingers_cat: I sort of skipped over the X post stuff for a few months. Just skipping posts entirely. This one had at least a post from a website that summarized everything. I thought I’d comment that I didn’t find the X link dogpile added anything that wasn’t already in the HuffPost article.
Leto
Not exactly OT, but more conservative judges refuse to recuse themselves: Unions in Wisconsin sue to reverse collective bargaining restrictions on teachers, others
Martin
So, COP28 is going about as expected.
The loss and damage fund that was announced at COP27 is getting some funding – $475M so far, $17.5M of that from the US. To contextualize this the estimate for climate damage to the nations that the fund would help is estimated at about $550B over the last 20 years, and presumably the next 20 years will be worse. So, you know, the fund is less than that. To further contextualize this, the current Powerball jackpot is estimated at $400M. Maybe we can talk that person into doubling the global fund.
The other big topic was a resolution on sustainable agriculture. Basically that requires folding in agriculture emissions into a nations emissions reporting. Until now, nations didn’t need to count agriculture emissions, but most nations signed on to do so (the US did sign on). That will make it harder for the US to meet its stated goals, and will probably require some legislation to incentivize farmers. In the US that would probably involve eliminating the burning of cropland in Florida, for instance, programs to reduce missions around meat production, and possibly efforts to reduce transportation emissions on imported and shipped food. So this is good, but is only an accounting change really because it adds in emissions that the Paris Agreement previously didn’t require counting. It doesn’t fundamentally change anything on the ground. Puts some pressure on certain nations like the US though.
But mostly it’s a lot of sentiment and not much action. I know at these things you mostly get sentiment where action happens quietly in legislatures, etc. but this has been a particularly bad climate year. A lot of things are getting tipping pointy, and if they go over, getting them back is MUCH harder than what we’re already asking.
Jager
@piratedan:
Grab them, zip tie their hands, put black hoods over their heads.Toss them in the jail cells in the baseent of the Capitol until the hearings start.
Alison Rose
@moops: Why do you feel it necessary to criticize the FPer for not doing things the way you would prefer, though? AL does a lot of content for this site and it feels quite rude for the very first comment to be “ur doing it wrong”.
BellyCat
@Subsole: With all due respect, fuck Ketanji. She’s either a reformer or is complicant. Yes, she’s a step in the right direction, but has shown her cards. Acceptance above all else. Judicial Omertà is to be honored.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
I was with you this far. I’d love to see any of these critics do better than our front-pagers do.
But:
“For all its flaws” – good Lord. It’s ‘flaws’ are that it’s a freakin’ Nazi propaganda machine, owned by a man who hates Jews, trans persons, and a whole long list of others.
I’m not telling everyone they should get off Xitter right this moment, because unfortunately there’s nothing out there yet that is what Xitter has been. I know there really is no other good place for you to get news about what’s going on in India, for instance, so I can understand why you stay, and that it would be far more of a sacrifice for you to quit Xitter than it was for me.
But that still doesn’t entitle you to sweep its depravity under the rug with a casual “for all its flaws” as if it just had a bunch of technical problems to cope with, rather than a site with such repellent propaganda than even WallyWorld decided to abandon it.
Omnes Omnibus
@BellyCat: What specifically do you think the three should do? And how would their doing it make a difference?
Bill Arnold
I’m seriously happy that Durbin demonstrated possession of a spine here.
More, much more of this. If the GOP Senators had any respect for the Senate, they would have filed like 10 amendments, some of them actually relevant, they would have all or mostly been voted down.
But blockage with 177 amendments simply demonstrates deep disrespect for the Senate and its traditions;
the Senate, which is already by design an anti-majoritarian body.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
I’d feel bad buying a POS ‘truck’ like that, no matter who made it.
BellyCat
@Omnes Omnibus: Create a co-signed statement regarding enforceable ethics requirements policy for USSC. This is not hard
ETA: Their silence signals a degree of cooperation and some misguided notion that the ‘other side’ is somehow operating in good faith. All of which is false.
lowtechcyclist
@danielx:
You’ll never have a major-league fastball again. Sorry to break this difficult news to you. ;-)
Omnes Omnibus
@BellyCat: And how would this change things?
geg6
@danielx:
I have not had it but my SO has. I’ll just tell you what he told me. He had double knee replacements and then about three years later, the rotator surgery on his shoulder. He says he’d have the knees done again any time. He recovered very quickly and had relatively little pain. The shoulder surgery and recovery was much, much harder and more painful. But still worthwhile.
Gin & Tonic
@Dark Patriot: Do you have the same mother?
WaterGirl
@danielx: Oh shit, that sucks. No info for you, though.
lowtechcyclist
@Omnes Omnibus:
Who knows what actions help build up momentum that eventually results in a positive change?
But you know as well as I do that inaction never leads to a damn thing other than more of the same.
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: That’s great! I remember doing charcoal in a summer art class way back, maybe when I was in elementary school.
3/4 of the things on Ms F’s Christmas list are art supplies! She’s really enjoying Zentangle. I copied your list from awhile back; I may surprise her with something.
BellyCat
@Omnes Omnibus: Srsly? Their consolidated statement would signal intent to equally honor ethics rules applied to all (government employees and) justices, at any level below them, to every other fucking human being in the U.S.
What is your (seemingly apparent) objection?
Omnes Omnibus
Judge Chutkan denied Trump’s Motion to Dismiss. (Warning: Twitter link)
dnfree
@middlelee: My boss used to say that! I never heard it anywhere else. This was in northern Illinois.
frosty
I’m SO glad I finally know the source for this weird phrase!
Sparkedcat
@Baud: That depends upon the neck.
Gin & Tonic
@lowtechcyclist: Granted it’s a shithole. Right now, though, it remains invaluable (to me) for news about Ukraine. If there were an alternative, I’d use that. But there isn’t.
But everyone here knows it’s a shithole, which is why (IMO) the posturing about AL’s or Adam’s extensive use of those links is pointless and wastes everyone’s time.
lowtechcyclist
@dnfree:
I was today days old when I heard it for the first time.
Omnes Omnibus
@BellyCat: I am not objecting. I am asking why you are condemning them, what would cause you to change your mind, and why? I thought you seemed a bit rough on people who are following the rules that exist, and I wondered why you were so vehement. I am still not sure what this statement that you want them to sign would accomplish.
frosty
@moops: OK, you get a pass. I was just irked that it was the first two comments out of the gate. Carry on.
Alison Rose
@Omnes Omnibus: I know it’s just the normal way of doing it, but I do love seeing DENIED in all caps like that.
Gin & Tonic
@danielx: Not exactly rotator cuff, but very similar (capsulorraphy) – my son has had the same shoulder under the knife three times. If you need it, you need it, but it’s nobody’s definition of fun. Be prepared to have very limited mobility for a good long time. But it probably beats dislocating your shoulder a couple of times a year.
Alison Rose
This is really great and I hope it’s only the beginning:
frosty
@Martin: I read an estimate that the burning of the boreal forests in Canada was triple the country’s man-made CO2 emissions. And none of that is counted in any of the CO2 calculations. So going net-zero tomorrow doesn’t get us there. I’m quite pessimistic tonight.
BellyCat
For the legal wedge here: I haven’t really mentioned this in detail before, but four years ago I was restricted from seeing my 3 1/2 year old son without cause (80% Parent A, 20% Parent B [me]). This “interim” order was filed and obtained without my knowledge and without opportunity to be heard. How was this done? This was due to an unpublished (read: impermissible) local custom offered by the Prothonotary which permits local attorneys to “walk through” a normal matter and hand-pick their desired judge in hours, rather than days, providing the appearance (especially easy in custody claims) that an emergency was involved. None was present. None was even alleged. The result? Five judges recusing (unprecedented in PA) without restoring my son’s and my constitutional liberty interest of equal parental nurture.
The judiciary, at all levels, MUST be brought to heel.
Martin
@Alison Rose: We’re gonna have to move a little faster than that. 40 acres is good but we can do better.
karen marie
@moops: Thank you!
I wouldn’t object to screenshots. The problem with twitter embeds is, often one can’t see the full tweet and to see it, one has to go there. When there’s video in the tweet, hitting play means most of the time you’ll get thrown into twitter.
I really do not want to give the asshole the traffic.
BellyCat
@Omnes Omnibus: Nothing will change my mind. Why you feel support from within for the reasonable application of ethics rules for the highest court in the land, operating free of ethical obligation, is seemingly without merit (or beneficial effect) is somewhere between troubling and mystifying given your profession.
lowtechcyclist
@Gin & Tonic:
i agreed with s_c that such criticism was stupid.
I also said that I can see how for many people there really is no replacement out there for what it’s been, and that it was a much bigger ask for people in her situation to give it up than it was for me, and indeed I wasn’t asking that. And you’re clearly in that situation as well.
Brachiator
No doubt, they said “I don’t got to appear because I know a guy who knows a guy who’s a Supreme Court judge.”
Or, “I own the justices, so that makes me the judicial branch.”
Or, “Separation of powers? Separate this.”
What a bunch of smug ass clowns.
ETA. I noted previously that Applebee’s Whisperer David Brooks once said that he was friends with Crow, during a Newshour broadcast.”
I think that every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.
Martin
@frosty: Yeah, emissions from fires aren’t in the inventory. This is the challenge with feedback loops, once they get going, you have to work harder and harder to stop them. Your best bet is to move fast before the interest compounds.
BellyCat
Agreed.
karen marie
@moops: I understood you were not criticizing the posters but the practice.
Don’t let the deliberately obtuse get you down.
Redshift
So they actually think they’re part of the judicial branch? That seems pretty damning…
Alison Rose
@Martin: I mean…this clearly isn’t the end. It’s the first instance of this happening, and nowhere does it say it’s the only one. It’s great because it’s the start of something, not the end. There’s no need to take good news and say BUT IT COULD BE BETTER!!! It will be. Rome wasn’t built in a day, or so I’ve been told.
bbleh
@CaseyL: @WaterGirl: @piratedan: my understanding is that this vote allowed the Judiciary Committee to suspend the normal Senate rule that ISSUING a subpoena requires the approval of the full Senate (vs. only the committee), but it does NOT suspend the rule that REFERRING noncompliance to DOJ likewise requires a vote of the full Senate, ie they cannot yet ENFORCE without Republican votes.
Still, it’s a step in the right direction in a couple of ways, and maybe the fact that they’ve suspended the one rule/part indicates they might suspend the other.
Omnes Omnibus
@BellyCat: I am in favor of the Supreme Court being subject to the same code of ethics as the rest the judiciary. I just did not grok the reasoning behind your condemnation of the three other justices. I am sorry I did something between troubling and mystifying you by asking questions. I’ll try to refrain from ever having such effrontery again.
dexwood
@karen marie:
Thumbs up for your comment.
mrmoshpotato
Oh just go on record as being pro-corruption, you chickenshits.
lowtechcyclist
@Omnes Omnibus:
What rules exist concerning the creation of a SCOTUS ethics code?
Like a song I heard on Sesame Street a long time ago goes, “you never ever know if you don’t try at all.”
BellyCat
@Omnes Omnibus: More specifically, if one is to argue that the USSC is currently complying with ‘the rules (such as they are, despite utterly lacking definition or efficacy), a unified voice within USSC recognizing the problems with the current conditions and the need to apply uniform, more specific, and enforceable rules via congressional action would/could provide a permission structure for others to actually apply enforceable rules.
Absent signature of such by the ‘progressive three’ is nothing more than ‘let the guards guard the guards’.
UncleEbeneezer
@Omnes Omnibus: They should get on the bully pulpit with their green lantern rings and work some underpants-gnome magic. PROBLEM SOLVED!!!
Another Scott
@karen marie: I try to avoid going to Twitter directly.
What I do is grab the URL of the tweet in question, and replace “twitter.com” with “nitter.net”. Then I (without an account) can see the Twitter thread, etc., without directly giving Melon clicks.
It’s not perfect, but it’s better than clicking on a tweet and only seeing that one thing (which often is the same as we see here).
FWIW.
Thanks to AL and the FPers for their efforts to keep us informed during this transition.
Cheers,
Scott.
gene108
I wonder if anyone will ask the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee why they are so adamant Crow and Leo not testify?
Hunter Biden is willing to testify before a House committee in an open hearing. Democrats aren’t throwing a fit.
middlelee
@Baud: Well there is that.
Omnes Omnibus
@lowtechcyclist: I was referring to the current disclosure rules that the three are, to the best of my knowledge, following. As far as such a statement goes, I see no harm in it. I just don’t see why they deserve a giant fuck you for not doing it. That’s it.
Ramona
@danielx: rent the device that will pump ice water through a sleeve around your healing shoulder 24/7, if your toilet paper holder is not on your non operated arm side, buy a freestanding toilet roll holder, buy some front opening shirts (night dresses?) with snap on buttons, stock up on audiobooks or check them out of your library, hope you have a friend who’ll help you in a shallow bath (arm has to be wrapped in plastic during bath) and do your physical therapy faithfully once you can. And oh, if you have thrown up before from anesthesia, tell your anesthesiologist about it because they can give you something to keep the nausea away.
BellyCat
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks for providing your position. On this we agree. As for the playing victim ‘just asking questions’, bullshit…. I thought more highly of you.
Omnes Omnibus
@BellyCat: I was asking questions, for fuck’s sake. That’s what I was doing. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
SFAW
@japa21:
No kidding. Maybe someone can do a wellness check?
What worries me even more about it is that it might be contagious (spreading through the Intertubez), and we end up with a non-cranky Cole. The horror, the horror!
BellyCat
True. But your so-called ‘cigar’ was, “I’ll try to refrain from ever having such effrontery again.” Whatevs… I’m done.
Omnes Omnibus
@BellyCat: Yeah, by that point, you’d already annoyed me. It happens.
BellyCat
@Omnes Omnibus: My most sincere apologies for having the temerity to annoy Your Highness.
UncleEbeneezer
@Alison Rose: Have you ever been there? It’s a really cool place. Love to see it back in Native/Indigenous hands :)
Devore
https://discussingfilm.net/2023/11/29/godzilla-minus-one-review-a-new-jaw-dropping-masterpiece/
On the lighter side. The New Godzilla movie just hit the theaters And as the review linked above notes It’s a masterpiece
smedley the uncertain
@frosty: Concur
UncleEbeneezer
@Devore: Have you been watching Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on AppleTV? It’s pretty good and fun.
satby
holy fuck, this joint has fallen straight into the crapper.
SpaceUnit
@satby:
Agree. I’ve just been lurking tonight but this is a really salty comment thread.
ETA: Is there a full moon or something?
New Deal democrat
@piratedan:
As you can imagine, ignoring the subpoenas and fighting all the way to SCOTUS will take years, and will be decided long after this Congressional term is over. In other words, running out the clock is a viable strategy.
There is an alternative, but it has not been used since 1848. Congress itself can hold them in contempt, and order them held in prison until either compliance or the end of Congress’s term.
In 1848 Congress outsourced the issue to the Courts because the proceedings were too time consuming, and were only needed rarely.
Now that witnesses have learned that they can treat Congressional subpoenas like toilet paper, the system is no longer working.
Hope that answers your question.
Princess
@satby: I tend to avoid commenting in the evening for a reason. Different crowd.
Tony G
I still don’t believe that “Harlan Crow” is the real name of this low-life. Sounds like a Loony Tunes character from the fifties.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Alison Rose: I like your posts! Does that make me a bitch too? 😁
Devore
@UncleEbeneezer: Thanks. But no. Sounds like another reason why I should get AppleTv
Gvg
@Dark Patriot: what’s wrong with complaining about being hung and who cares what the quality of the rope is anyway? That saying never made sense to me. I know what it was supposed to mean, but it did not work correctly IMO.
Gvg
@BellyCat: they have to try to persuade some of the others to vote with them on multiple important cases and antagonizing them and embarrassing their coworkers publicly for a non substantive guesture is a poor strategic choice in place of maybe getting 2 votes on keeping something like voting rights or health care while we voters try to get the democrats enough legislators in to actually make enforceable ethics laws and restore proper rights more permanently. Judges don’t make laws. Frankly, we voters have to put more democrats in office. We need a higher number.
What we can expect changes based of the proportion of both houses and the executive that agree. When we only have 1 house and a thin margin in the other, we don’t get big changes. When we have lots but they don’t do things, THEN you get mad and vote new ones in etc. They are actually being more successful than we should expect because the republicans are coming apart.
wjca
A bit short on self-righteousness. But an absolutely sensible take on the situation the 3 justices faced. To have spoken up at this point, to make some kind of symbolic point, would have been anything but cost-free.
AM in NC
@danielx: my mom had surgery to repair rotator cuff and reattach bicep. It is not fun, and recovery is long and hard. BUT if you do your PT, you will get back to normal range of motion and strength.
the worst part for my mom was the beginning, with the immobilizing sling and managing pain, but it got better.
One key piece of equipment was a polar care icing machine which pumps ice cold recirculating water through a pad that covers the recovery area. Good for pain and swelling. I just used that same machine for my ACL surgery recovery and it really helped.
Wishing you the very best surgical outcome and recovery!
BellyCat
@Gvg: Your points are well taken; however, the weakness is in the presumption that a thoughtful, co-signed USSC document requesting that congress pass a law delineating ethics rules would, in fact, “antagonize” certain members of the court.
The inverse might actually hold here. Draft a powerful, supportive letter — clearly passing the buck to congress — and let the non-signers on the USSC risk being viewed as being unreasonably resistant to ANY amount of reasonable checks
To not craft such a letter at this time is to, in effect, support the broad (and accurate) perception that the USSC judges can do whatever the fuck they want. And this (accurate) perception ultimately “undermines public confidence in the judiciary”, to trot out a well worn phrase they ALL have heard, ad nauseum, since Year One in law school.
“Crickets”, at this juncture reflects poorly on all, regardless of those we like and those we don’t.
ETA: And this is painless because congress will NEVER agree on these rules, unless Sheldon Whitehouse gets his way.
kalakal
@Baud:
Don’t worry, with time you’ll get used to people practicing archery on it
wjca
Consider the vehemence with which several members of the Court have reacted to other suggestions that their ethics might not be beyond approach. Somehow that presumption doesn’t seem weak at all.
moops
*yawn* and?……
Villago Delenda Est
@gene108:
But the Rethugs ARE throwing a fit because Biden wants it to be public, and says he’ll sit before him if it is public. Comer doesn’t want that, for some odd reason…
LiminalOwl
@danielx: On the off chance you’re still reading this thread: I had rotator cuff surgery in mid-September. Mobility is returning, thanks to twice-weekly PT; pain is still a near-constant, though decreasing in intensity; PT says it might take up to a year to be entirely gone. (If you want to communicate directly, ask WG for my email address.)
brantl
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, for the love of god, chill.
brantl
@UncleEbeneezer: Without substantive negative press, the Sinister Six won’t change. Even the anemic response that they have given so far was only prompted by the bad press they’ve gotten so far. They won’t get better unless pressured, who can pressure them better than their peers?
WaterGirl
@bbleh: I was not aware of that, thank you.