Clarence Thomas Hit With Two New Issues in 24 Hours

[Tatetopa]

5 hours ago, DarkHunter said:

Yet it's the left who goes only after conservative Justices even though out of 17 Supreme Court Justices between like 2004 and 2024 who have received a combine total gift value of over $4 million only 2 have fully reported everything.  

All of this is just very clearly an attempt to remove conservative Justices to give Biden a chance to appoint liberal Justices since none of the liberal Justices who have done the exact same thing as the conservative Justices are being impeached.

Look, things are a mess,  If there is not a clear ethics standard for justices there should be.  This problem will never be solved by pushing it into liberal  / conservative back and forth accusations.

Congress people should not receive gifts / bribes from parties that are looking for laws to be passed.  Period.

Justices should not receive  gifts / bribes from supplicants or anybody else if we want to rid our government of corruption.  Period

Millions of dollars is nuts as a total much less for individuals.  A Supreme Justice gets paid about $280k a year.  A $500k gift is almost 2 years salary.  I will say it again, that is nuts.  That includes trips and vacations as well as material items.

Why do you think corporate ethics  concerning gifts started with Purchasing Agents?  Because a gift from a vendor might influence where an agent spends company money..  Instead of doing the best job for the corporation, they are taking a bribe  and doing the best for themselves.

Corporations do not want to allow for that possibility. They forbid  any gifts over a 10-20 dollar range.  We could not even accept major league sports tickets.  With zero tolerance, things become very black and white.

Why should citizens  of the US want  one of our agents making a decision for personal gain instead of the protecting the rights and property of the US citizens? There needs to be a standard of ethics that forbids gifts.  Same for Congress.

Gifts for people with decision making power are bribes pure and simple and are a characteristic of sh**hole countries.  They should not be part of any branch of the US government.

How ever do you expect to have a rule of law if you do not start at the top with those who make or enforce the law?

No equivocation.  No gifts.

[Grim Reaper 6]

21 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

Look, things are a mess,  If there is not a clear ethics standard for justices there should be.  This problem will never be solved by pushing it into liberal  / conservative back and forth accusations.

Congress people should not receive gifts / bribes from parties that are looking for laws to be passed.  Period.

Justices should not receive  gifts / bribes from supplicants or anybody else if we want to rid our government of corruption.  Period

Millions of dollars is nuts as a total much less for individuals.  A Supreme Justice gets paid about $280k a year.  A $500k gift is almost 2 years salary.  I will say it again, that is nuts.  That includes trips and vacations as well as material items.

Why do you think corporate ethics  concerning gifts started with Purchasing Agents?  Because a gift from a vendor might influence where an agent spends company money..  Instead of doing the best job for the corporation, they are taking a bribe  and doing the best for themselves.

Corporations do not want to allow for that possibility. They forbid  any gifts over a 10-20 dollar range.  We could not even accept major league sports tickets.  With zero tolerance, things become very black and white.

Why should citizens  of the US want  one of our agents making a decision for personal gain instead of the protecting the rights and property of the US citizens? There needs to be a standard of ethics that forbids gifts.  Same for Congress.

Gifts for people with decision making power are bribes pure and simple and are a characteristic of sh**hole countries.  They should not be part of any branch of the US government.

How ever do you expect to have a rule of law if you do not start at the top with those who make or enforce the law?

No equivocation.  No gifts.

Great post Tate, you knocked this out of the ball park.

[Tatetopa]

10 hours ago, DarkHunter said:

So you are suggesting that ethics violations and corruption begins at a specific value amount, what specific value amount is it ok for a Supreme Court Justice to not disclose gifts.

It is corruption if the gift changes behavior.  Otherwise it is a temptation.   Corporations set a limit because they want to remove the temptation of being influenced.  As the old saying goes, everybody has a price    A business does not want to test that, but they may assume that nobody would be influenced to risk a $100k job for a $20 lunch.. Corporations have a specific low value for gifts that can be received,  None of the reporting BS, just no gifts above a trivial amount.  You consider that setting a value on corruption, but in a rational world, people do get taken to lunch or somebody may buy them a beer.  So there is a nonzero limit.  

There is no reason whatsoever that any government official should be allowed to accept non-trivial gifts.   None. Ever.   It is still  not OK if it is declared either.  Great to satisfy tax requirements, but not ethical standards.

Why is it MAGA people think government is so corrupt?  Why is it all of us think government is corrupt? One reason among many may be that there is not a public, transparent standard of ethics for government officials with the power to change the course of our nation.

[DarkHunter]

32 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

It is corruption if the gift changes behavior.  Otherwise it is a temptation.   Corporations set a limit because they want to remove the temptation of being influenced.  As the old saying goes, everybody has a price    A business does not want to test that, but they may assume that nobody would be influenced to risk a $100k job for a $20 lunch.. Corporations have a specific low value for gifts that can be received,  None of the reporting BS, just no gifts above a trivial amount.  You consider that setting a value on corruption, but in a rational world, people do get taken to lunch or somebody may buy them a beer.  So there is a nonzero limit.  

There is no reason whatsoever that any government official should be allowed to accept non-trivial gifts.   None. Ever.   It is still  not OK if it is declared either.  Great to satisfy tax requirements, but not ethical standards.

Why is it MAGA people think government is so corrupt?  Why is it all of us think government is corrupt? One reason among many may be that there is not a public, transparent standard of ethics for government officials with the power to change the course of our nation.

I'm not going to bother to really respond to your long winded posts cause you can't seem to understand a rather simple fact, also I don't particularly like you and your false sense of moral superiority.

You can keep going on and on about how no Justice or congressman should receive any gifts but that isn't what the serious issue is.  Corruption is bad, violating ethics is bad, but the only thing worse is selectively enforcing laws and rules on some and not others.  

You keep railing about how no one in government should ever accept gifts but if you actually read anything I posted instead of going instantly into partisan attack mode you would of noticed how I never endorsed corruption/ethics violations or said either was ok when what I have been saying is that selective enforcement of the laws and rules, this time on partisan lines, is about the worst thing that can be done.  If you want to impeach Justice Thomas and remove him then go a head but the other eight Justices need impeached too but I have never seen you once demand that Justice Sotomayor, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, or Justice Kagan be removed.

I can just as easily ask why so many people on the left, which includes you very clearly, seem to believe selectively using the power of the government to advance your own ends is such a good idea when it is the single most dangerous thing that can be done for the nation.

Knowing you, you will start claiming how you are left and partisan and how you are a centerist who cares about the country which is very clearly garbage and a lie.  You are about as partisan as it comes despite your claims.

Ultimately corruption is bad but selective use of government power is far worse and far more dangerous.

Edited July 13 by DarkHunter

[Grim Reaper 6]

1 hour ago, Tatetopa said:

It is corruption if the gift changes behavior.  Otherwise it is a temptation.   Corporations set a limit because they want to remove the temptation of being influenced.  As the old saying goes, everybody has a price    A business does not want to test that, but they may assume that nobody would be influenced to risk a $100k job for a $20 lunch.. Corporations have a specific low value for gifts that can be received,  None of the reporting BS, just no gifts above a trivial amount.  You consider that setting a value on corruption, but in a rational world, people do get taken to lunch or somebody may buy them a beer.  So there is a nonzero limit.  

There is no reason whatsoever that any government official should be allowed to accept non-trivial gifts.   None. Ever.   It is still  not OK if it is declared either.  Great to satisfy tax requirements, but not ethical standards.

Why is it MAGA people think government is so corrupt?  Why is it all of us think government is corrupt? One reason among many may be that there is not a public, transparent standard of ethics for government officials with the power to change the course of our nation.

Great post Tate, no matter what the individual says in post 70. He loves to move around forum and attack people if they don't see his point of view. He is not worth responding to my brother!!!!!

[Tatetopa]

13 hours ago, DarkHunter said:

I'm taking the stance there should be no corruption but the only system worse then a corrupt system is a system with selectively enforced laws and rules.

I'll try to be brief. As I said before, I agree with that idea. That was not the topic of this thread, but probably worthy of its own.

[Grim Reaper 6]

6 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

I'll try to be brief. As I said before, I agree with that idea. That was not the topic of this thread, but probably worthy of its own.

You have more class in your toenail than he does in his entire body!!!!

[GlitterRose]

Nobody gives a crap about corruption if it's their team.

End of story.

[GlitterRose]

On 7/11/2024 at 3:24 PM, psyche101 said:

Unfreaking believable isn't it! 

Maga really gravitates towards criminals. The GOP needs to be investigated. It's just a sham organisation. The people following this new religion are a threat to all. 

America needs an enema. 

Agreed.

[Grim Reaper 6]

48 minutes ago, GlitterRose said:

Nobody gives a crap about corruption if it's their team.

End of story.

That's not actually true and it's also way I currently don't have a team. I will not support corruption in way, shape or form, and many Americans feel the same way and they are in the same boat I am and it's a lonely place to be!!!!