Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire

[Mike M (the other one)]

(04-10-2023, 12:28 PM)Dill Wrote: You earn the "strawman" comments by refuting arguments that were never made. 

As you are doing now, when you say that I identified strawman features of your argument to cancel Crow's collection. I don't know and am not speaking for "someone." I, Pally, and Sunset made pretty clear we don't have a problem with a museum display of political ideologies, and you addressed us collectively in a single post.  You made our arguments strawmen by ignoring our qualification--imputing to us a claim we had not made and then "refuting" that because it's easier and keeps the corruption issue obscured.

You also seem to miss the point about the relation between a Supreme Court Justice and a billionaire who gives him vacations worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Claiming that the billionaire is free to give gifts to whom he chooses and Thomas is free to make friends with whom he will, so there is only wrongdoing if someone can prove that a $500,000 dollar gift one summer influenced a judgment which favored the billionaire a year or two later misses the problem entirely.

Because corruption is so damaging to democracy, and because it is so hard to prove, rules and ethical norms requiring the reporting of "gifts" are  to prevent even the perception as well as the possibility of such corruption. 


Someone appointed to know and uphold the law, Thomas, has failed to hold himself to the required ethical standard, and it is no defense of his behavior that no one has "proved" his billionaire benefactor directly benefited--though it would not be hard to prove the billionaires as a class have benefitted from Thomas' votes on cases involving campaign finance. And Crow in particular supports politicians who block ethics reform and stronger laws against corruption. Thomas can be counted on to keep the dark money flowing without oversight, as he lives a billionaire lifestyle off the books.

Related question: why do you suppose Thomas, the guy who jets and yachts around Pacific islands on someone else's dime, says he feels "more comfortable in a Walmart parking lot than on a beach"? The answer to the question will help you understand how the billionaires of this country manipulate middle and lower classes into to protecting billionaires' power at the expense of the rest of us.

Oh i know all of this, talk to the OP that posted a report about only the bad statues and nothing else about this guys collection, then Pally posted a Hitler document as well, out of the thousands that he could have posted. To me it appeared he was trying to further the Nazi angle.

Not sure why you are taking offense, you and one other poster said if it's part of a much larger collection then no problems, which i pointed that very thing out.

Media these days is get a couple facts, omit ones that don't support your bias and fill in the gaps with speculation. Print.

So far there doesn't seem to be much if any factual evidence that Thomas didn't follow the rules as they were. There's way too much speculation going on.