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.
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.
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
People hate her cause shes
- A woman
- Not afraid to point out bullshit
- Puerto Rican.
- A democrat.
You nailed it.
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.
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
“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
AOC is pragmatic, and sometimes pragmatism looks like hypocrisy.
We write to urge the Department of Justice
When the Department of Justice doesn’t do anything, what then?
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.
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.
we can always just eat them
Old people are full of heavy metals, forever chemicals, and sometimes prions. No thanks.
we must transfer the lead from their brains to our bodies
senate has the authority to pack the courts, assuming the president cooperates. of course neither branch will consider that in the name of @[email protected]
🥰
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.
Overthrow them
We will return to Bush era programming and put them officially O N N O T I C E
Merrick Garland’s cowardly ass would probably suppress any attempt to investigate Thomas. He wants back to those cushy FedSoc retreats.
More performative inaction and stalling until the Republicans can take over again.
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?
Why do you assume they’re trying? They share a tax bracket with Republicans, not you.
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?
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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?
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.
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
Libs can’t stand having their echo chambers violated lol
Why would you want any Democrat doing that after going on and on about January 6th?
nonviolent resistance
There are millions of people who will march on AOC’s command!?!?
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.
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.
Why not both?
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.
And term limits for fuck’s sake.
And also overturn Marbury v Madison
Abandoned liberal democracy.
Sun yat-sen thought makes it way to lemmy
God I hope I’m around to see this woman be president.
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.
Look into Mariam Williamson. She’s running on FDRs New Deal and Second Bill of Rights.
Neat! Maybe they’ll set down a commission to create a committee to create a framework for an investigation one of these days
See also @[email protected]’s list of variations on this
Lmao that’s fantastic
Nothing will come of this.
Congress has the power to legislate how the supreme court works.
She could at least be doing a meaningless gesture that gestures towards something that could be useful.
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.We had that in 2008. What happened next?
Kennedy died and we lost the 60 votes in the Senate.
Kennedy died several months after Obama took office. What were Democrats doing during this time, aside from bailing out bankers and dronestriking weddings?
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:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009
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.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System
https://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.
saving the economy by throwing poor homeowners under the bus. smdh why can’t leftists just appreciate how much Obama saved the
bankerseconomyWhich didn’t actually happen, but you do you I guess.
aside from bailing out bankers
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?
“The Economy” being the 700,000 people a month losing their jobs under Bush.
Jobs:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_losses_caused_by_the_Great_Recession
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:
If the Democrats were actually making things better, why did voters throw them out of congress within two years?
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.
Can you link me a member of Democrat party leadership saying they’d impeach Thomas?
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.
no that would be a “no, there isn’t one.” then?
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…
Stop being a worm and answer the question
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.
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
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.
deleted by creator
Performative gestures continue to be performative. The Democratic Party has no real desire to check the power and corruption of the courts.
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
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.
The best I can say about this is that it might grab the attention of people who aren’t yet aware of Thomas’s corruption, because yeah otherwise this isn’t going anywhere.
Would anyone who is not rich really care if every government official in the country (including Trump) was thrown in prison?
No more half measures, walter.
Quite the contrary we would be cheering for it
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
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.
Lol
Lmao even
He should be forced to resign.
If you think this man would ever agree to resign, you haven’t been paying attention. He has to be impeached or he’ll probably die on the bench. This republican ghouls (and anyone involved in American politics in general (have you seen or heard Feinstein lately?)) are so addicted to the money and power they just never retire. Look at this walking corpse that has her family fighting over the inheritance already that’s a US senator:
Pretty sure forced to resign means he doesn’t agree to it.
Except there’s basically no way to do that… Kinda the whole issue. So, not sure wtf your really bad point is.
Still too light: if we’re dreaming how bout thrown in jail?
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.
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
Worked for the Republicans when they spent 4 years screaming about Benghazi
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.
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.
