AOC leads call for federal ethics investigation into Clarence Thomas ( www.theguardian.com )

Five House Democrats led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York wrote to the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, to demand a federal investigation of the conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas, over his acceptance of undeclared gifts from billionaire rightwing donors.

“We write to urge the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into … Clarence Thomas for consistently failing to report significant gifts he received from Harlan Crow and other billionaires for nearly two decades in defiance of his duty under federal law,” the Democrats said.

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

We write to urge the Department of Justice

When the Department of Justice doesn’t do anything, what then?

TrismegistusMx ,
@TrismegistusMx@lemmy.world avatar

More performative inaction and stalling until the Republicans can take over again.

givesomefucks ,

If the entire Dem party was as proactive as AOC something might happen, but they’re not.

So until progressives are in power of the party, they can’t really do anything except “perform” and raise awareness.

Why do you seem to blame the people who are trying instead of the ones who won’t even do that?

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

And what is the plan to put progressives into power? Beg people to vote? The same failed strategy of my entire fucking life?

AOC has a platform. There are millions of people who are ready to march on her command. She could use that instead of writing letters.

givesomefucks ,

AOC has a platform. There are millions of people who are ready to march on her command. She could use that instead of writing letters.

It sounds like you’re saying she should pull a trump?

Or you greatly overestimate how much a peaceful protest would change the minds of Clearance Thomas or the “moderates” running the Dem party…

I mean, she’s literally using her platform right now

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

She’s not calling for protest. She’s not calling on her supporters to rise up and target McCarthy or Thomas. That’s what she should be doing.

Do everything she can to stress for nonviolent resistance, of course, but our greatest enemies are just men. They have addresses, friends and family, business interests, investments, properties, vocal and financial supporters, and many other targets that are very vulnerable to collective action. I certainly don’t want overenthusiastic people with guns to storm the Capital or anything like that!

givesomefucks ,

On a completely unrelated note:

Anyone else have recommendations for an instance that doesn’t federate with lemmygrad or lemmy.ml?

This shit is getting old

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Libs can’t stand having their echo chambers violated lol

givesomefucks ,

Nah, but there’s always the block button…

Although from your profile it seems like you get banned pretty often and I’ll have to block you again later.

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

If I’ve ever been banned from anything I have never noticed lol

The nice thing about the block feature is you won’t reflexively downvote everything I post because you won’t see it 🙃

Alteon ,

Oh please, everyone likes to think they are above this. Your leftist community is no different. I made a single comment unknowingly in lemmygrad and was accused of being a colonialist for being a social Democrat. They used racial slurs against me, they accused me of saying things I never said, and acted like I was the evil that invaded their space. They didn’t block me, but holy fuck were they a toxic cesspit of leftist rage because I wasn’t “left” enough.

You want social change that doesn’t end in anarchy and countless deaths, societal change needs to happen slowly and they couldn’t find reason in that. They want/expect some sort of paradigm shift and anyone that doesn’t fight for this is “the enemy”.

Fuck them entirely and communist horse they rode in on.

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Cracker is not a slur lol

Alteon ,

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_(term)

Seriously? We’re cherry picking what’s considered a slur? When I get called out for the color of my skin, how is that not considered a racial slur? That literally as dumb as saying black people can’t be racist. Come on now…are you being serious?

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

You can’t be racist against white people.

Alteon ,

Institutional Racism? Yeah, I can probably agree with you there. But racism towards one individual? No, you are flat out wrong. By redefining what “racism” is, you don’t get to just give yourself a free pass on racial slurs and insults. It’s not okay for people to do it to you, and fuck you if you think it’s okay to do it to other people. A big fuck you.

Defining “racism” as being determined primarily by systemic power as a whole is odd, to say the least, and creates even more odd assumptions. Does that mean if a minority non-white population gains a controlling, majority power in the US, that white people are no longer racist in the US? Yeah, that sounds kinda retarded, don’t it? Can a Hispanic person be racist to a black person? Or is there some sort of grading formula that determines what’s okay and not okay to you?

The definition of racism by the dictionary: *Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, **typically *one that is a minority or marginalized.

By that very definition, your usage of “cracker” is every bit as “racist” as calling any other ethnicity any other racial, derogatory word. And your community is not doing itself any favors when you single out people that are somewhat supportive of your view points.

It must awfully convenient when you just get to pick your own meaning and interpretations on words.

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Racism is inherently institutional my dude.

No one is oppressing crackers. Grow up.

Alteon ,

No, it really isn’t. There’s institutional racism, or racism built into laws and rulings, and systemic racism that’s built into traditions, beliefs, and opinions.

I’m going by the standard definition and your going by whatever it is that leftists would like to define things as. Then again we’re arguing semantics. I’ll never think that it’s okay for you guys to be derogatory, discriminateling assholes just because I’m white, just like I’ll never think it’s okay for literally anyone else to discriminate against any other ethnicity.

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Whiteness has to be abolished, not coddled. It’s not an ethnicity; there are white ethnicities but whiteness, itself, is an artificial construction of colonialism. It was literally invented to justify slavery and genocide, to stop race mixing, and to enable superexploitation of nonwhite peoples.

You have never thought seriously about racism or what it is or where it comes from or why it’s bad. Grow up.

Alteon ,

It’s frustrating when you see someone doing a fantastic job of pushing the party further to the left, and doing everything they can to be a voice of reason and logic when there seems to be so little and then seeing someone like you going, “They aren’t doing enough.” Mate, what are YOU doing?

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

I’m a stupid worthless loser, what the fuck can I do besides whine on the internet?

She hasn’t pushed the Party anywhere. The voters did that! She just obeys.

pinkdrunkenelephants ,

Why would you want any Democrat doing that after going on and on about January 6th?

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

nonviolent resistance

pinkdrunkenelephants ,

That’s what Trump and his cult claim they were doing 🤦

Now any politician calling for any sort of action besides voting are going to look like him, and remind people of that. It’s all about perception.

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Reality matters more than perception.

And yes, the fascists will perceive it as the same as Jan 6th, but who cares what they think?

xtr0n ,

Calling for , encouraging and even organizing a peaceful protest isn’t “pulling a Trump “. Encouraging people to physically harm others to prevent vote counting and the peaceful transfer of power is what Trump did. Please don’t conflate legitimate protests with insurrection and attempted coups.

ivanafterall ,

There are millions of people who will march on AOC's command!?!?

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

If she went on live television and called for mass protest, she could get millions of people to act in cities all across the country.

Maybe it wouldn’t be millions right away, but so many people are just waiting for the Call to Action from their leaders.

xtr0n ,

I don’t know if the progressives within the DNC could really mobilize a multi million person protest but if they could organize a general strike then that would get shit done. I’ve heard that if about 10% of workers strike then that has enough impact on the investor class to actually have leverage. Of course, the US isn’t France and the average person has no union, no savings and no access to a social safety net, so I’m not holding my breath.

adespoton ,

Why not both?

TrismegistusMx ,
@TrismegistusMx@lemmy.world avatar

Why do you assume they’re trying? They share a tax bracket with Republicans, not you.

givesomefucks ,

House reps make like 175k to maintain a primary residence (for her NYC) and one in DC…

She’s not broke, but she’s not crazy rich either.

And I’m confused, if she was rich, why would her pushing for wealth equality be bad?

TrismegistusMx ,
@TrismegistusMx@lemmy.world avatar

It’s not bad, it’s performative. It’s an act, like Nancy Pelosi kneeling with an African scarf. Meaningless, ineffective action that prevents effective and meaningful action.

Ubermeisters ,

They can request a hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee or the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss the matter, or they can attempt to introduce new legislation which creates an independent committee to investigate.

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

I don’t think the Senate has authority over the Court. That’s purely in the purview of the House, which is controlled by the fascist party and so requests and letters are a dead end. It’s gotta be something more aggressive than that.

Ubermeisters ,

we can always just eat them

queermunist ,
@queermunist@lemmy.ml avatar

Old people are full of heavy metals, forever chemicals, and sometimes prions. No thanks.

macabrett ,
@macabrett@hexbear.net avatar

we must transfer the lead from their brains to our bodies

xtr0n ,

If only the Democrats had the will to expand the house with a simple majority, back when they had the majority. Given how many people there are in left leaning states and cities, it’s absurd that the current GOP should ever be able to take the house. But, as usual , the only party that isn’t completely fascist seem incapable (or unwilling) to do what it takes to secure any power for the people they supposedly represent. We needed to expand the house and expand the Supreme Court ages ago.

pinkdrunkenelephants ,

Overthrow them

silent_water ,
@silent_water@hexbear.net avatar

senate has the authority to pack the courts, assuming the president cooperates. of course neither branch will consider that in the name of @Civility

Civility ,

🥰

Patches ,

We will return to Bush era programming and put them officially O N N O T I C E

eestileib ,

Merrick Garland’s cowardly ass would probably suppress any attempt to investigate Thomas. He wants back to those cushy FedSoc retreats.

givesomefucks ,

It’s always disappointing when people shit on the few politicians who are actually trying to help because there’s not enough of them to win…

AOC is out there bringing this stuff up and motivating younger generations to get involved in politics, and it’s working.

So it’s really hard to believe all the people who claim to be on the left but spend all their time shitting on the ones trying and not the ones who won’t even talk about it.

bitsplease ,

I’ll really never understand why so many people reserve so much hate specifically for AOC. Is she perfect? Is she immune from the hypocrisy you find in literally every elected official today? Hell no. She’s definitely guilty of having said one thing than voted the other way and similar, as is every other politician out there.

But on the relative scale of U.S. Politicians, she’s one of the few who is at least making the right noises about change, and while she doesn’t always get things done, she definitely seems to be moving in a better direction than most other politicians.

And yet people single her out all the time for their hatred. Between her and the hate surrounding Greta (which is also weirdly prevalent on Lemmy), it’s hard to see it as anything more than just hating young women who speak up, and wind up being wildly successful at doing so

givesomefucks ,

And yet people single her out all the time for their hatred. Between her and the hate surrounding Greta (which is also weirdly prevalent on Lemmy), it’s hard to see it as anything more than just hating young women who speak up, and wind up being wildly successful at doing so

I feel like there’s a lot of accounts on Lemmy that are larping so people believe the bullshit horseshoe theory is real.

It’s the only rational explanation for lemmygrad and similar instances.

bitsplease ,

It’s the only rational explanation for lemmygrad and similar instances.

Idk, I explain that one away simply with the fact that stupidity and a desire to troll don’t strictly follow party lines. Nothings stopping a communist (or someone dumb enough to think being pro russia/China is the same thing) from having the mental maturity of your average the_donald poster

Dubious_Fart , (edited )

People hate her cause shes

  1. A woman
  2. Not afraid to point out bullshit
  3. Puerto Rican.
  4. A democrat.
like47ninjas ,

You nailed it.

sarcasticsunrise ,

“Leftist” Jimmy Dore can take the blame for a good chunk of that. Ever since she snubbed him about a year ago all that dude does is hyper fixate on AOC. It’s legit disturbing

snaf ,

AOC is pragmatic, and sometimes pragmatism looks like hypocrisy.

Wage_slave ,
@Wage_slave@lemmy.ml avatar

You know, in these hard, and trying time, it is heart warming to see AOC bringing those who demanded the rule of law, but didn’t have any. They have been starving for more rule and more law for so long now.

God bless that woman. May they get so much rule of law that they cups over floweth and they can choke on it. There is so much rule of law in her generosity that it is reported that Chuck Norris gives thanks for her before every meal and self gratification.

As well all should. And Moses said “Fuck yeah, you go girl”, and ye, it was good.

carl_dungeon ,

Let’s just do all of them while we’re at it. They literally hold themselves above the law and should instead be held to a higher and stricter standard than anyone.

skellener ,
@skellener@kbin.social avatar

Damn straight! ✊

Dubious_Fart ,

Do an investigation into the entire supreme court.

I don’t care if they are left or right, lib or Con. Investigate them all.

in fact there should be a special government agency dedicated to monitoring and constantly investigating Federal/Supreme court judges in the interests if ethics and impartiality.

TheLowestStone ,
@TheLowestStone@lemmy.world avatar

And term limits for fuck’s sake.

refurbishedrefurbisher ,

And also overturn Marbury v Madison

hglman ,

Abandoned liberal democracy.

h3doublehockeysticks ,

Sun yat-sen thought makes it way to lemmy

Jimmycakes ,

They always call for this but never do anything. Anyone can call for this.

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.one avatar

Nothing will come of it. The only guardrail on the Supreme Court is impeachment and the Republican led House will not start impeachment hearings on a Republican Judge.

Want to change that? Here’s what needs to happen in 2024:

A Democratic President
A Democratic majority in the House
At LEAST a 60 vote Democratic majority in the Senate.

duderium ,

We had that in 2008. What happened next?

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.one avatar

Kennedy died and we lost the 60 votes in the Senate.

duderium ,

Kennedy died several months after Obama took office. What were Democrats doing during this time, aside from bailing out bankers and dronestriking weddings?

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.one avatar

Kennedy died in August of 2009, in those 8 months they (and Obama) kind of saved the American economy?

You have to remember, when Obama took office, we were losing 700,000 jobs a month and the stock market had PLUMMETTED TO $6,500.

They managed to get the Recovery act passed in February, fought by the Republicans every inch of the way:

…wikipedia.org/…/American_Recovery_and_Reinvestme…

Which enabled the Tea Party movement and set the stage for the losses in 2010.

Followed by the “Cash For Clunkers” act in July to prop up the American auto industry, an industry many Republicans (including Mitt Romney) at the time said we should just let die.

en.m.wikipedia.org/…/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System

www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html

Then Kennedy died, we lost the 60 vote majority, and Republicans proceeded to use the filibuster more times than all the other Presidential terms combined.

Assian_Candor ,
@Assian_Candor@hexbear.net avatar

aside from bailing out bankers

silent_water ,
@silent_water@hexbear.net avatar

saving the economy by throwing poor homeowners under the bus. smdh why can’t leftists just appreciate how much Obama saved the bankers economy

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.one avatar

Which didn’t actually happen, but you do you I guess.

silent_water ,
@silent_water@hexbear.net avatar

jacobin.com/…/obama-foreclosure-crisis-wealth-ine…

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.one avatar

“The Making Home Affordable initiative of the Secretary of the Treasury, as authorized under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008”

Hmmm… who was President in 2008? 🤔

Now, if you want to argue Obama should have stopped it, well, yeah, there’s a lot of things he should have stopped…

silent_water ,
@silent_water@hexbear.net avatar

objecting to one line in a rather long article isn’t actually the defense you think it is

JohnBrownsDream ,
@JohnBrownsDream@hexbear.net avatar

That’s not a quote that’s even in the article. How about:

Given these differences in wealth portfolios, bailing out financial assets after 2008 while allowing homeowners to drown directly concentrated the national wealth into the hands of the richest white families.

duderium ,

Kennedy died in August of 2009, in those 8 months they (and Obama) kind of saved the American economy?

“The economy” meaning rich people’s yacht money?

Which enabled the Tea Party movement and set the stage for the losses in 2010.

You can tell that the Democrats made a massive positive difference in the way that voters threw their asses out of power within two years of Obama’s inauguration, replacing him six years later with a game show host. If that isn’t victory, I don’t know what is!

Can you name a bill the Democrats have passed within the last fifty years that has made a positive difference in your material life as well as the material lives of the people around you? Without doing research?

Why has Biden refused to use the defense production act to pass universal health care? Why hasn’t he packed the courts? Why is it so hard for him to do these things but so easy for him to send tens of billions of dollars to Nazis in Ukraine?

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.one avatar

“The Economy” being the 700,000 people a month losing their jobs under Bush.

Jobs:

…wikipedia.org/…/Job_losses_caused_by_the_Great_R…

January 2009 – 818,000 jobs lost
February 2009 – 724,000 jobs lost
March 2009 – 799,000 jobs lost
April 2009 – 692,000 jobs lost
May 2009 – 361,000 jobs lost
June 2009 – 482,000 jobs lost
July 2009 – 339,000 jobs lost
August 2009 – 222,000 jobs lost
September 2009 – 199,000 jobs lost
October 2009 – 202,000 jobs lost[3]
November 2009 - 64,000 jobs created[4]
December 2009 - 109,000 jobs lost[4]

Vs Economy:

www.cbpp.org/sites/default/…/6-6-19budf1.png?itok…

duderium ,

If the Democrats were actually making things better, why did voters throw them out of congress within two years?

h3doublehockeysticks ,

Actually you only need 50 senators and then you just put in 50 judges. And oh hey what’s this, the DC statehood bill passed the house?

Actually doing something would be easy. But they don’t actually want to.

SweaterWeather ,
@SweaterWeather@hexbear.net avatar

Can you link me a member of Democrat party leadership saying they’d impeach Thomas?

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.one avatar

We aren’t talking about Democratic leadership, we’re talking about AOC.

p.s. “Democrat Party” gives your bias away, it’s the Democratic Party.

came_apart_at_Kmart ,

no that would be a “no, there isn’t one.” then?

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.one avatar

No it’s a “I’m not letting you be a sea lion and hijack the conversation.”

If you have something on point to say, great. If you don’t? Exit’s over there…

Grownbravy ,
@Grownbravy@hexbear.net avatar

Stop being a worm and answer the question

came_apart_at_Kmart ,

did you not see that he is in charge of internet conversations and is using his legal authority to quash this entire line of inquiry?

our only recourse is to wait for the next election and vote out his Pedantic Liberal Party in favor of a nebulous alternative and hope their platform includes a plank to revisit this issue at a later date.

SweaterWeather ,
@SweaterWeather@hexbear.net avatar

So if the Democratic party leadership won’t commit to impeachment how is voting for them going to change the status quo of not impeaching judges?

You said if you want to change this, you need this many Democrats. But the Democrats aren’t saying they’re going to change it. And presumably they know more about their intentions than you.

Also you need 2/3 majority to convict. So you might want to revise your numbers.

Edited to fix a typo

macabrett ,
@macabrett@hexbear.net avatar

p.s. “Democrat Party” gives your bias away, it’s the Democratic Party.

Is the bias that they’re a communist or an anarchist? Because that’s what most people on our instance are. It’s not like we’re hiding it.

Assian_Candor ,
@Assian_Candor@hexbear.net avatar

Lol

Lmao even

somename ,

Performative gestures continue to be performative. The Democratic Party has no real desire to check the power and corruption of the courts.

DauntingFlamingo ,

They do if Gerrymandering and voter suppression makes it so they have no power. They’re fine sharing power, but if they see a possibility of having none, they will fight back

duderium ,

Would anyone who is not rich really care if every government official in the country (including Trump) was thrown in prison?

Assian_Candor ,
@Assian_Candor@hexbear.net avatar

Quite the contrary we would be cheering for it

DauntingFlamingo ,

There are good ones doing their jobs. We only hear about the shitty ones, or the more protected ones who can afford to make noise due to being in deeply safe districts. AOC, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, etc are all easy incumbents who won’t lose an election by making big plays that may or may not work out

duderium ,

There are good ones doing their jobs.

I mean, all of them have the same job: stop communism, keep the white supremacist bourgeois gravy train rolling. In that respect, they’re all more or less doing the best they can.

barrbaric ,

No more half measures, walter.

Egon ,
@Egon@hexbear.net avatar

Neat! Maybe they’ll set down a commission to create a committee to create a framework for an investigation one of these days

Skotimusj ,

I love AOC, but this is just smoke and mirrors. The progressive reps always make a big deal when they know their “inquiries” will go nowhere because they don’t have the votes. It stirs up their base with no repercussions. This is just lip service at this point. Still glad it is being said though.

DauntingFlamingo , (edited )

They’re the only ones saying anything or attempting anything official. They know they can’t remove him without the other chamber, but it is important to have these things on the official record for both the public and for a future session of Congress who could do something with it

Uncle_Bagel ,

Worked for the Republicans when they spent 4 years screaming about Benghazi

Boddhisatva ,

It isn’t smoke and mirrors. They are making as big a deal out of it as they can because they don’t have the votes to do more. Calling attention to this criminal behavior is simply the best they can do because they, as you point out, don’t have the votes to do more. And stirring up their base if a good thing if it gets more progressive voters to the polls and gets more progressive representation in government.

Psythik ,

Yeah seriously. AOC calls for a lot of things but no one will listen to her. The only thing she accomplishes is pissing off Republicans – which I’m all for – but nothing will get done with just one AOC. We need more people like her in office.

gmtom ,
@gmtom@lemmy.world avatar

God I hope I’m around to see this woman be president.

ThePac ,

It seems so obvious. She’s what Democrats have been asking for in recent years. Would I prefer she have a bit more experience in Congress before making that move? Yes, but it can’t possibly be worse than what we got in 2016.

golamas1999 ,

Look into Mariam Williamson. She’s running on FDRs New Deal and Second Bill of Rights.

UlyssesT ,

Nothing will come of this. sleepi

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