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.
“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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Why not both?
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.
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.He should be forced to resign.
Still too light: if we’re dreaming how bout thrown in jail?
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.
That guy wouldn’t resign if he was caught shooting at someone on Wall Street with an assault rifle while also getting a BJ from a paid salary Playboy 🐰 model. Yeah, that’s how things are.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
As well as Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive popularly known as AOC, the letter was signed by Jerrold Nadler of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House judiciary committee; Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a professor of constitutional law; Ted Lieu of California; and Hank Johnson of Georgia.
This week saw the publication of a bombshell ProPublica report which said Thomas had taken 38 undeclared vacations funded by billionaires and accepted gifts including expensive sports tickets.
Outlining reporting about Thomas, the representatives said his “consistent failure to disclose gifts and benefits from industry magnates and wealthy, politically active executives highlights a blatant disregard for judicial ethics as well as apparent legal violations.
Refusing to hold Thomas accountable, the Democrats said, “would set a dangerous precedent, undermining public trust in our institutions and raising legitimate questions about the equal application of laws in our nation.
The original article contains 530 words, the summary contains 229 words. Saved 57%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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.
They always call for this but never do anything. Anyone can call for this.
Clarence mate will come along and tell everyone that theres nothing and he always has this bag of cash.
Damn straight! ✊
