Open Threads

This is what we need:

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced articles of impeachment against the conservative US supreme court justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on Wednesday over the justices’ “pattern of refusal to recuse from consequential matters before the court”. […]

Reporting by the news outlet ProPublica revealed that Thomas failed to disclose several luxury vacation trips that were paid for by Harlan Crow, a conservative megadonor. Thomas has also been pressed to recuse himself from cases involving the January 6 US Capitol attack and Donald Trump because his wife, Ginni, is involved with groups that were connected to the insurrection.

The resolution filed against Thomas contains three articles of impeachment. The first focuses on his failure to disclose gifts from Crow. The second two involve his refusal to recuse himself from cases connected to his wife.

Alito also took a vacation with and flew on a private jet chartered by Peter Singer, a Republican billionaire. Additionally, Alito refused to recuse himself from cases involving the attack on the US Capitol after it was reported that his wife, Martha-Ann, flew an upside-down American flag associated with the insurrection at their Virginia home. Further, the Alitos flew a flag associated with Christian nationalism at a beach home in New Jersey.

Ocasio-Cortez filed two articles of impeachment against Alito. One focuses on his failure to disclose luxury travel and the other on his refusal to recuse himself from January 6 cases.

Yeah, they won’t go anywhere this term, but it’s a great campaign issue, and it throws down a marker if we win the House. People understand that luxury trips are corruption:  it’s a good, simple talking point.

Yes!Post + Comments (206)

I’m enjoying this little bit of back-and-forth between Biden and the assholes who run Texas:

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the federal government could not distribute emergency relief supplies, including power generators, after Hurricane Beryl hit Texas until the White House was able to “track down” state leaders and get their formal request for a major disaster declaration.

Biden’s comments came as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is serving as acting governor while Greg Abbott is on an economic development trip in Asia. The president said in an exclusive interview with the Houston Chronicle that he had been trying to contact the governor to get the necessary requests to release the federal aid, which includes manpower and supplies.

“I’ve been trying to track down the governor to see — I don’t have any authority to do that without a specific request from the governor,” Biden said.

1.3 Million people are still without power in Houston after Hurricane Beryl hit.  The lie Dan Patrick told about the delay is that he had to make an on-the-ground assessment first, but:

Rafael Lemaitre, FEMA’s former national director of public affairs, said major disaster declarations do not need to wait for thorough on-the-ground assessment. Governors are the lead requesters for the designation and support, but can amend their asks as they get more information.

“The fact that 80% of Texas’ largest city was in the dark, along with widespread public reports of impacts to life and property is more than sufficient to begin the process,” Lemaitre said. “The one thing you never get back during a response is time.”

[…]

“We just want you to know, we’ve been working on this for two days and we finally got the request,” Biden said. “We positioned an awful lot of stuff in Texas ahead of time, but I had to get a specific request for this.”

“The federal government was there assessing, but we can’t declare a disaster declaration that would free up what we already staged — bottled water, meals, tarps, generators, etc,” the president said.  “And so, we’re on the ground, we’re ready to go, we just needed authority to be able to do it.”

My guess at what happened is that Abbott and Patrick toyed around with the idea of going it alone without federal help, because they’d get Democrat cooties if they worked with Biden.

They Played With Fire a Little BitPost + Comments (142)

What is this dude talking about?

Whatever happens, Biden or Harris, neither is going to win or lose by a landslide.  It’s going to be close.  Also, stop framing it as “Biden should drop out.”  If you think Harris is a better candidate than Biden at this moment in time, say it.  Because that’s the only option.  Also, Nancy Pelosi isn’t helping by saying that “the president needs to make a decision” when he clearly announced his decision two days ago.

BTW, I saw a snippet of Biden addressing union members when I stopped by a family member’s house this morning, and he looked fine to me.

I really was hoping to write about something else, so I will do what every Democrat near a microphone should do, pivot to Trump.  Are you aware that under Project 2025, 48 million women would be denied access to emergency contraception (Plan B not Plan C)?  That’s what we should be talking about.

I Climbed a Mountain and I Turned AroundPost + Comments (375)