Meanwhile, in Atlanta, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T.
Willis, who filed a massive racketeering indictment against Trump and 18
co-defendants on Monday night (and is African American), also has received racist threats that include pictures of gallows and nooses.
And the names and purported addresses of the grand jurors who
returned the Fulton County indictment were doxed on a pro-Trump fringe
website, according to NBC.
The network said one of the responses to the list read: “These jurors
have signed their death warrant by falsely indicting President Trump.”
I remember back in the good old days (before the 2016 election) when
many commentators tried to soften Trump’s pretty obvious racism by
excusing it as politics or by saying we can’t know what’s in his mind.
We, BS on that. We can know and we do know.
On Tuesday morning, Trump wrote that he will present an “irrefutable”
report about election fraud that he alleges took place in Georgia next
Monday.
“Based on the results of this CONCLUSIVE Report, all charges should
be dropped against me & others – There will be a complete
EXONERATION,” Trump wrote. “They never went after those that Rigged the Election. They only went after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!” www.dailydot.com/…
(I’m not an African-American, but I’m still sensitive to racial and
other epithets. Somehow, though, I missed this one, though it puzzled me
why tfg put in that last sentence, since it made even less sense than
his usual rants — until Robinson explained it. I can only plead that the
flood of other news overwhelmed me.)
Robinson quite rightly focuses on the attacks on African-Americans
(and other people of color), especially, who as prosecutors and judges
are preparing to hold Trump accountable for his actions. But I want to
address another aspect that Robinson only touched on:
It was always just a matter of time before threats against the public
officials and everyday citizens who are holding Trump accountable
became explicitly violent and racist. The only question
is whether the Republican Party is going to pretend not to notice —
which is the same thing as actively joining in. [emphasis added]
There was always an implicit racist aspect to Trump’s threats against
anyone who stood in his way, and Robinson is correct to say it is now
explicit. But Trump’s habit of calling for violence has always been
explicit. During the 2016 campaign, he called on his supporters to beat
up protestors and “promised” he would pay their legal bills. (I don’t
recall that anyone actually took him up on it, but if so, they would
have found his promise was worth what his other promises were — bupkes.)
Political violence has a long history in this country. Just ask
Alexander Hamilton. Or Huey Long. Or the four assassinated presidents
(plus a couple who almost were). But in general, this political violence
has been directed at specific individuals in public life. This threat
to the grand jurors, ordinary citizens who stepped up to do their duty
to the country and Constitution, represents a new depth that we have
rarely if ever seen before. We protect our presidents; we can, when
necessary, protect public servants like Judge Chutkan and DA Willis. We
simply do not have the resources to protect every private citizen who
serves for a moment, much less the multitude of other citizens who do
nothing more than express an opinion that Trump doesn’t like.
And Trump knows that. He’s counting on it.
Donnie takes off his robe and hood to pose with his buddies.
There has got to be a major
contest going on as Donald Trump’s brain tries to figure whether he will
allow his fear of incarceration to outweigh the thought that his
lifelong grift might get a badly needed boost if the government were to
place him in pretrial detention.
Whatever he actually thinks in this regard, “pushing the envelope”
doesn’t come close to describing how he’s treating the behavioral
boundaries set by Judge Tanya Chutkan. Given the judge’s crystal clear
warnings, Trump might as well be screeching “nyah,
nyah, nyah” like a playground dare every time he mouths off with some
faux-macho intimidation, something past history would suggest he is
hard-wired to do.
At some point, a threat must be exercised or the power of future
threats is vapor. If Trump keeps it up, Chutkan will have little choice
but to call his bluff and make good on her warnings.
A fed-up Chutkan would seem unlikely to choose house arrest, or as they say in many parts of south Florida, casa por cárcel—literally “house for prison,” which the sprawling Mar-a-Lago cannot be.
If Trump continues to flip off the judicial warnings, then he should
be detained and treated just like any other person housed in pretrial
lock-up. It’s unlikely they all get unlimited access to the internet
megaphone.
As anyone knows who has even cursorily followed the media discussion
of the man’s fourth and latest indictment, the logistics of getting
this and the other cases before juries are going to be a considerable
undertaking. It seems likely special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6
conspiracy charges will go first. He’s indicated in various ways he
wants this important trial to get rolling soon, well before the general
election. Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers are working to wrangle any delay
they can, apparently in hopes that somehow their client will find a way
to make the coup work next time, squirm his way back into the White
House, and they’ll all get Cabinet posts or something.
I rarely make predictions, but I’ll wager the rent money that this is not going to happen.
I’ll brave one more prediction, expending my quota for the year: If
the former occupant of the White House does ultimately get held in
pretrial detention, he and his lawyers will be desperate for the trial
to start ASAP rather than keep trying to delay it until January 2025.
The sooner the better, I say. That being so, the sooner Trump gets locked up, the better.
My
wife and I went to see Oppenheimer in 70mm Imax. It was intense! The
movie has all the elements: war, fear, power, fame, profit, love,
infidelity, politics, and the loss of innocence that comes with
knowing.
It
was in the sixties when the older men in our semiconductor company wore
black armbands in a reverse protest against the anti-Viet Nam war
students. It was the time of the Kent State student massacre by the
National Guard. It was the time when adding machines could not multiply
or divide and when carbon paper was used for copies.
I
was a “Silicon Valley Man” (corduroy coat, hush-puppy shoes, slide
rule, briefcase, and punched computer tape hanging out of my pocket) and
I thought that MAD (mutual assured destruction) was crazy. I had
short hair. The Hippies could see that I was not one of them.
I thought that the war was not good. But like the Oppenheimer crew of
scientists, our government needed me, because of the bomb. It
jump-started my life.
I
have known many brilliant people during my life, some of them even
reported to me. But I have known only two as smart as Oppenheimer.
Neither of them fit well into society. Both were arrogant and
trustworthy in a way that paid no attention to politics. They might
have thought that they were the most intelligent people in the world.
They might have been correct.
The
demoniac in society is the bomb. We are between a rock and a hard
place. Irresponsible self-interest, promoted by the GOP, makes it
worse. We can’t change our thinking without people getting hurt. We
will experience the terrible bomb again. Mathematical expectation, an
artifact of probability and learning, predicts it.
The
movie does not tell you that Oppenheimer was educated in the
non-Orthodox Jewish Ethical Culture Society. They believed that deeds
matter.
They
rejected Orthodox Judaism. They had the objective of remaining
“religious” while hiding their family’s identity from anti-Semitism.
And
then there was the trial that was only an inquiry. Prejudice is not
just racial, political, or religious. It exists whenever we make a
judgment about someone before all the evidence is in.
Former
White House chief of staff Marky Mark Meadows speaks with reporters at the
White House, Oct. 21, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Donald Trump and 18 other associateswere charged Monday in Georgiaas
part of a sweeping indictment alleging they schemed to illegally
overturn his 2020 election loss and stop the peaceful transition of
power.
The indictment, brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani
Willis, follows an investigation that lasted more than two years and
marks the fourth criminal case brought against the former president.
Those charged in Monday’s indictment face a slew of charges,including racketeering,
violating the oath of a public officer, forgery, false statements and
other offenses. Prosecutors say they must all surrender to authorities
by Aug. 25.
Here’s a look at the 19 defendants charged in the indictment:
DONALD TRUMP: Then-President Donald Trump fixated on Georgia after
the 2020 general election, refusing to accept his narrow loss in the
state and making unfounded assertions of widespread election fraud
there. He also called top state officials, including Gov. Brian Kemp, to
urge them to find a way to reverse his loss in the state. In aJan. 2, 2021, phone callwith
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump suggested the
state’s top elections official could help “find” the votes needed for
him to win the state. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened
an investigation into possible illegal attempts to influence the
election shortly after a recording of that call was made public.
RUDY GIULIANI: During several legislative hearings at the Georgia Capitol in December 2020, theformer New York mayor and Trump attorneypromoted unsupported allegations of widespread election fraud in Georgia. Prosecutors have saidRudy Giulianiwas
also involved a plan to have 16 Georgia Republicans serve as fake
electors, falsely swearing that Trump had won the 2020 presidential
election and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and
qualified” electors.
JOHN EASTMAN: A former dean of Chapman University law school in Southern California,John Eastman, one of Trump’s lawyers, was deeply involved in some of hisefforts to remain in powerafter
the 2020 election. He wrote a memo arguing that Trump could remain in
power if then-Vice President Mike Pence overturned the results of the
election during a joint session of Congress where electoral votes would
be counted. That plan included putting in place a slate of“alternate” electorsin seven battleground states, including Georgia, who would falsely certify that Trump had won their states.
MARK MEADOWS: Trump’s chief of staff visited Cobb County, in the
Atlanta suburbs, while state investigators were conducting an audit of
the signatures on absentee ballot envelopes in December 2020.Mark Meadowsobtained
the phone number of the chief investigator for the secretary of state’s
office, Frances Watson, and passed it along to Trump, who called her.
He also participated in theJan. 2, 2021, phone callbetween Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
SIDNEY POWELL: A lawyer and staunch Trump ally,Sidney Powellwas
part of a group who met at the South Carolina home of conservative
attorney Lin Wood in November 2020 “for the purpose of exploring options
to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and
elsewhere,” prosecutors have said. Wood, who’s licensed in Georgia, said
Powell asked him to help find Georgia residents to serve as plaintiffs
in lawsuits contesting the state’s election results. Additionally,
emails and documents obtained through subpoenas in an unrelated lawsuit
have shown that Powell was involved in arranging for a computer
forensics team to travel to ruralCoffee County, about 200 miles southeast of Atlanta, to copy data and software from elections equipment there in January 2021.
KENNETH CHESEBRO: Prosecutors have said Kenneth Chesebro, an
attorney, worked with Georgia Republicans in the weeks after the
November 2020 election at the direction of Trump’s campaign. Chesebro
worked on the coordination andexecution of a planto
have 16 Georgia Republicans sign a certificate declaring falsely that
Trump won and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and
qualified” electors.
JEFFREY CLARK: A U.S. Justice Department official who championed
Trump’s false claims of election fraud, Jeffrey Clark presented
colleagues with a draft letter pushing Georgia officials to convene a
special legislative session on the election results, according to
testimony before the U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6,
2021, Capitol riot. Clark wanted the letter sent, but Justice Department
superiors refused.
JENNA ELLIS: The lawyer appeared with Rudy Giuliani at a Dec. 3,
2020, hearing hosted by state Republican lawmakers at the Georgia
Capitol during which false allegations of election fraud were made.Jenna Ellisalso
wrote at least two legal memos to Trump and his attorneys advising that
Pence should “disregard certified electoral college votes from Georgia
and other purportedly ‘contested’ states” when Congress met to certify
the election results on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors have said.
RAY SMITH: A Georgia-based lawyer, Ray Smith was involved in multiple
lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. He
also gathered witnesses to provide testimony before Georgia legislative
subcommittee hearings held in December 2020 on alleged issues with the
state’s election.
ROBERT CHEELEY: A Georgia lawyer, Robert Cheeley presented video
clips to legislators of election workers at the State Farm Arena in
Atlanta and alleged the workers were counting votes twice or sometimes
three times. He spoke to the lawmakers after Giuliani.
MICHAEL ROMAN: A former White House aide who served as the director
of Trump’s election day operations, Michael Roman was involved in
efforts to put forth a set of fake electors after the 2020 election.
DAVID SHAFER: The chairman of the Georgia GOP, Shafer was one of 16
state Republicans who met at the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign
a certificate declaring falsely that Trump had won and also declaring
themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors. He also
joined Trump in a lawsuit challenging the certification of the 2020
election in Georgia.
SHAWN STILL: He was one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a
certificate falsely stating that Trump had won the state and declaring
themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors. Shawn
Still was the finance chairman for the state GOP in 2020 and served as a
Georgia delegate to the Republican National Convention that year. He
was elected to the Georgia state Senate in November 2022 and represents a
district in Atlanta’s suburbs.
STEPHEN CLIFFGARD LEE: Prosecutors say Stephen Cliffgard Lee, a
pastor, worked with others to try to pressure Georgia election worker
Ruby Freeman and her mother after Trump and his allies falsely accused
them of pulling fraudulent ballots from a suitcase during the vote
count. Lee allegedly knocked on Freeman’s door, frightening her and
causing her to call 911 three times, prosecutors said in a court filing
last year.
HARRISON WILLIAM PRESCOTT FLOYD: Also known as Willie Lewis Floyd
III, he served as director of Black Voices for Trump, and is accused of
recruiting Lee to arrange a meeting with Freeman and Chicago-based
publicist Trevian Kutti.
TREVIAN C. KUTTI: Prosecutors allege publicist Trevian C. Kutti
claimed to have high level law enforcement connections. They say Freeman
met with Kutti at a police precinct, where she brought Floyd into the
conversation on a speakerphone. Prosecutors say Kutti presented herself
as someone who could help Freeman but then pressured her to falsely
confess to election fraud.
CATHY LATHAM: One of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate
falsely stating that Trump had won the state and declaring themselves
the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors, Cathy Latham was also
chair of theCoffee CountyRepublican
Party. She was at the county elections office for much of the day on
Jan. 7, 2021, and welcomed a computer forensics team that arrived to
copy software and data from the county’s election equipment in what the
secretary of state’s office has said was “unauthorized access” to the
machines.
SCOTT GRAHAM HALL: An Atlanta-area bail bondsman, Scott Graham Hall was allegedlyinvolved in commandeering voting informationthat
was the property of Dominion Voting Systems from Coffee County, a small
south Georgia jurisdiction. Also charged in the scheme were Powell,
Latham and former county elections supervisor Misty Hampton.
MISTY HAMPTON: She was the elections director inCoffee County.
Misty Hampton was present in the county elections office on Jan. 7,
2021, when a computer forensics team copied software and data from the
county’s election equipment. She also allowed two other men who had been
active in efforts to question the 2020 election results to access the
elections office later that month and to spend hours inside with the
equipment.
Rudy, Rudy, Rudy! Ohhhh Rudy. Where are you, Rudy? It's not a homemade gallows, but you do have a noose around your neck.
The United States women’s
national soccer team exited the World Cup over the weekend, losing to
Sweden in the round of 16. It was the earliest World Cup loss ever for
the U.S. team, and came after wins in 2015 and 2019 and a finals
appearance in 2011. Clearly the team didn’t live up to its tradition of
excellence here, due to a combination of injuries, poor coaching
decisions in the group round, Swedish goalkeeper Zecira Musovic’s heroic
play (she made 11 saves), and, yes, a level of play that was never
quite as lofty as recent years. These things happen in sports—but
for Donald Trump and the right, this loss was an intensely political
cause for celebration.
“The ‘shocking and totally unexpected’ loss by the U.S. Women’s
Soccer Team to Sweden is fully emblematic of what is happening to the
our once great Nation under Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump wrote after the
loss, bad grammar and all. “Many of our players were openly hostile to
America – No other country behaved in such a manner, or even close. WOKE
EQUALS FAILURE. Nice shot Megan, the USA is going to Hell!!!
Trump’s reference to “Megan” is key here.
Longtime star Megan Rapinoe was one of three U.S. players to
miss penalty shots as the U.S. lost the penalty kicks phase 5-4, but
it’s Rapinoe who is a favorite target of the right, due to her
outspokenness and her decision to take a knee during the national anthem
from 2016 to 2021. She’s not the only reason the USWNT is so loathed on the right, but she’s the biggest part of it.
“WOKE EQUALS FAILURE”? I dunno, Donald. Megan Rapinoe was just
as woke in 2019 as she is now, and at that year’s World Cup she won both
the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball—awards for most goals scored and
the tournament’s best player—as she led the U.S. to the championship. I
think that the difference between 34 and 38 may be the major factor in
her comparatively poor play in this tournament. (And to be clear, it’s a
f’ing achievement to be on the USWNT at age 38!)
One right-wing personality after another
celebrated Rapinoe’s actually fairly minor role in the U.S. loss, from
Benny Johnson (“Team USA’s downfall was delivered by anti-America,
anti-woman activist Megan Rapinoe’s EMBARRASSING free kick”) to
@catturd2 (“The anti-American USA woke women’s soccer team has been
eliminated and Megan Rapinoe is the cause of it. I can’t stop
laughing”). Hilariously, Twitter had to add context
to multiple basic errors in Johnson’s tweet: Rapinoe was taking a
penalty kick, not a free kick, and he referred to the game as being in
the “16th round” rather than the round of 16. Obviously this is a man
who cares deeply about the World Cup outside of political point-scoring,
huh?
But cheering against an established tradition of American
greatness—to put it in language they might use if they were attacking
progressives over opposition to a war or a U.S.-backed coup or
something—because of one player’s politics is how today’s conservatives
operate. It’s hard to overstate how obnoxious and deeply ridiculous this
whole thing is.
If coach Vlatko Andonovski had used substitutions more wisely
in the group stage game against the Netherlands, the U.S. likely would
have won, rather than tied, that game and wouldn’t have been playing
Sweden in the round of 16. If Musovic had failed to make any of those 11
saves, the U.S. could have gone up a point over Sweden before it came
to penalty kicks. ESPN
suggests that the U.S. youth program isn’t producing the players the
women’s team needs. If Sophia Smith or Kelley O’Hara had not missed
their penalty kicks. If U.S. goalie Alyssa Naeher had stopped Lina
Hurtig’s penalty kick literally a millimeter sooner, before it just
touched the line.
There are so many what-ifs here, but what tracks with the right
wing’s viciousness is giddy celebration that a 38-year-old ended her
incredibly successful career in a tournament she barely played in by
missing her first penalty kicksince 2018.
Because she dares to be an LGBTQ+ woman who stands up for racial
justice and equal pay and trans athletes. Because many of her teammates
agree with her, albeit usually more quietly, on many of these points.
Because for the right wing, women’s sports only ever matter as a
political cudgel.
Also arrested are his brain and his sensibilities.
Two
leading, highly-credentialed conservative constitutional law professors
say the U.S. Constitution already “disqualifies former President Donald
Trump” from holding office, including being President, because of his
“participation in the attempted overthrow of the 2020 presidential
election.”
In a 126-page University of Pennsylvania Law Review paper
published Wednesday, University of Chicago Law School Professor William
Baude, and University of St. Thomas School of Law Professor Michael
Stokes Paulsen, introduce their work by writing:
“Section Three of the
Fourteenth Amendment forbids holding office by former office holders who
then participate in insurrection or rebellion. Because of a range of
misperceptions and mistaken assumptions, Section Three’s full legal
consequences have not been appreciated or enforced. This article
corrects those mistakes by setting forth the full sweep and force of
Section Three.”
Appearing
to push back against claims made previously by others in defense of a
second Trump presidential term, they write: “Section Three remains an
enforceable part of the Constitution, not limited to the Civil War, and
not effectively repealed by nineteenth century amnesty legislation.”
They say Congress need do nothing to implement Trump’s “immediate disqualification from office.”
“Section
Three is self-executing, operating as an immediate disqualification
from office, without the need for additional action by Congress. It can
and should be enforced by every official, state or federal, who judges
qualifications.”
The
law professors add, “to the extent of any conflict with prior
constitutional rules, Section Three repeals, supersedes, or simply
satisfies them. This includes the rules against bills of attainder or ex
post facto laws, the Due Process Clause, and even the free speech
principles of the First Amendment. Fourth, Section Three covers a broad
range of conduct against the authority of the constitutional order,
including many instances of indirect participation or support as ‘aid or
comfort.’ It covers a broad range of former offices, including the
Presidency.”
“And
in particular, it disqualifies former President Donald Trump, and
potentially many others, because of their participation in the attempted
overthrow of the 2020 presidential election.”
The New York Times
notes that both professors “are active members of the Federalist
Society, the conservative legal group, and proponents of originalism,
the method of interpretation that seeks to determine the Constitution’s
original meaning.”
“Steven
G. Calabresi, a law professor at Northwestern and Yale and a founder of
the Federalist Society,” The Times adds, “called the article ‘a tour de
force.'”
“Trump
is ineligible to be on the ballot,” Professor Calabresi told The Times,
“and each of the 50 state secretaries of state has an obligation to
print ballots without his name on them.” Calabresi also “said…that they
may be sued for refusing to do so.”
Former U.S. Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, a “star witness” during a televised hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, also praised the article. He says it “promises to be of monumental — and historic, if not also contemporary — importance to Constitutional Law.”
Noah Bookbinder, the President of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) notes
the two conservative law professors cite CREW’s work in their article.
He calls it, “Extremely significant that two leading conservative legal
scholars put out a piece today arguing that section 3 of the 14th
Amendment remains enforceable and disqualifies Donald Trump from
office.”
ProPublica’s investigations illustrate the
creation of a cult of personality that was engineered from the top down.
(photo: Slate)
Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern/Slate
11 August 23
ProPublica released yet another blockbuster report
on Thursday about Justice Clarence Thomas’ brazen violation of federal
ethics rules, revealing a new roster of billionaires who have routinely
funded his extraordinarily lavish lifestyle in secret. On top of Harlan
Crow’s humble alms, we can now add at least
38 destination vacations, 26 private jet flights, six helicopter
flights, another yacht voyage (in the Bahamas this time), a dozen VIP
passes to sporting events, and so much more—all underwritten by billionaire business magnates like H. Wayne Huizenga and David Sokol.
Once again, ProPublica reports that none of these junkets, trips, or
freebies were listed on the justice’s annual disclosure reports as required by law,
even though Thomas has reported other gifts and travel on some
occasions. Thomas also participated in a scheme to quite literally sell
access to the Supreme Court building, allegedly to raise money for the
ultra-elite Horatio Alger Association. Ten seats at the group’s ceremony at 1 First St. required a contribution of at least $100,000. Justices are explicitly advised not to use their positions to fundraise for private groups.
At this point, Thomas’ covert acceptance of billionaires’ endless largesse—and his refusal to disclose it, which amounts to serial lawbreaking—is well known. Indeed, the repeated and mealy-mouthed defenses that Thomas was once advised
by some unnamed ethics expert that he didn’t have to disclose
travel—and the even more preposterous claims that Thomas is a paragon of
virtue incapable of being influenced—have become less and less credible
with each successive report.
What stands out above the increasingly numbing details of Thomas’
extravagant travel and recreational experiences are the efforts of his
access-seekers to build a national cult around the justice. With each
story it becomes plainer that his closest, richest friends appear eager
to idolize the justice, creating a hagiography in which Thomas is not
just a great and brilliant man, but an almost messianic leader for whom
no earthly reward can be sufficient. It’s not just the travel and
vacations they finance. It’s a set of shrines and temples, films, books,
paintings, and myths.
In addition to the scope and breadth of the attempts of the ultrarich
to curry favor with an influential jurist, ProPublica’s investigations
also illustrate the creation of a cult of personality that was
engineered from the top down. Financed by a small group of extremely
wealthy people were efforts to turn the jurist into a national cultural
icon, which then locked the justice into a social class and milieu in
which his jurisprudence is hailed as a divinely inspired vindication of
America’s most cherished principles. It isn’t quid pro quo bribery, but
something far more effective: an inner circle of apostles who worship
and reward Thomas’ jurisprudence, then finance cultural efforts to
redeem and revere him.
A bribe rests on a mere financial transaction. It secures a one-off
quid pro quo that is not guaranteed to endure. What this coterie of
billionaires has offered Thomas is a coronation. And those last for
life.
It is especially fascinating to see the unseemly work that went into
constructing this mythology around the justice now that his disciples
are in the midst of a heated campaign to sell it to the public. Judge
Amul Thapar, a Donald Trump appointee, is currently on a book tour hawking his new tribute to Thomas, The People’s Justice, which claims that Thomas’ jurisprudence “favors the ordinary people.” Thomas’ wealthy friends financed the ultrareverent documentaryCreated Equal in 2020, in which he memorably declared
that he preferred “the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things
like that.” Before that, Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo
funneled millions of dollars into a public relations campaign
to aggressively lionize Thomas, astroturfing support and admiration in
op-eds, tweets, and websites. Today, conservative lawyers, law
professors, and activists are in the midst of a full-court press to
persuade the public that Thomas is a modest and misunderstood genius who
deserves to be anointed as the savior of the Constitution.
It turns out that this massive publicity blitz was built on decades
of work—expensive work—to canonize Thomas. Harlan Crow, ProPublica
reported on Thursday, flew the justice to New Haven on his private jet
so he could inspect his new portrait at Yale Law School, which Crow
subsidized with a $105,000 gift. Cringier still in Thursday’s report is
the fact that Thomas ally-slash-attorney-slash-biographer-slash-luxury
vacation partner Mark Paoletta, along with his wife, wrote and performed
a song for the justice while on a group vacation to the Grand Tetons, memorialized
as a “special tribute.” (Sokol, the billionaire, funded the extravagant
trip, and flew Thomas out on his private jet.) Photos from the
Thomases’ various excursions with their benefactors consistently show
the justice surrounded by rapturous, awe-struck admirers. “Have you met a
Supreme Court justice?” Huizenga asked the waitress in the private golf
lounge at the Floridian’s golf and yacht club before she took their
order. “This is Clarence Thomas.” Again, Thomas was an “honorary member”
of the club and paid no dues.
These benefactors invest in the justice strategically. Crow helped to fund the Clarence Thomas wing of Savannah’s Carnegie Library, where he was honored
for his service to the country. The library is right around the corner
from the Clarence Thomas Center for Historical Preservation, another
Crow-backed project. Down the road lies the Pin Point Heritage Museum
(underwritten by Crow); from there, it’s not too far to Thomas’ mother’s
house—which Crow owns. He says he purchased it because he has plans
to turn it into a museum honoring Thomas. There will undoubtedly be a
ceremony, a private jet, and an invitation-only event to celebrate that,
too.
Critics of the at times over-the-top
hagiography surrounding Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the final decade
of her career have suggested that progressives have no standing to
criticize Thomas. (The justice himself has criticized
judicial “myth-making.”) But the public adulation that sprung up around
the “Notorious RBG” and turned her into the equivalent of an
international rock star was not the product of a handful of sycophants
pouring money into films, books, and fake twitter accounts. It was an organic, ground-up grassroots response by law students, independent filmmakers, and young feminists to Ginsburg’s published dissents. Her biography
became a runaway bestseller because people were legitimately interested
in her life and work. Nobody sat around a private golf club
strategizing the rise of RBG as a progressive icon, and billionaires
didn’t fund that rise in response to films they didn’t like.
Contrast that with the billionaire-funded charm offensive around Thomas. Last month, the Washington Post connected the dots between Leonard Leo, Paoletta’s various roles as the Thomases’ lawyer
and publicist, pro-Thomas fan fiction accounts on social media, and the
dark money behemoth Judicial Crisis Network. It turns out that a big
dark money slush fund is hard at work telling the tale of Thomas’
singular greatness—all funded by the same billionaires who have worked
to end the administrative state, to allow the same dark money to pollute
elections, and to benefit the wealthy businesses they run. And yet,
with all their millions, this group could only get 51 people to follow
its sock puppet Clarence Thomas “fan account” on Facebook.
In the end, the most amazing takeaway from the new ProPublica reporting is not just how many wealthy benefactors insist they never
discussed a single legal matter with the justice they were courting
(scout’s honor), because evidently their numbers are legion. The most
amazing takeaway is that these benefactors knew precisely which jurist
to target, and how to do it. The same justices making claims about a sacred, untouchable, imperial court are being built up by their boosters to see themselves as untouchable emperors.
Buy a man enough portraits, fish canneries, and biopics and he might
just come to believe that he truly is not just a god among men, but also
the tragic victim of vile haters who want him to follow the disclosure
rules. What has been allowed to happen with some of the justices at the
Supreme Court is far more corrupt than mere pay to play: It’s pay to
create a myth of holy judicial infallibility, a lie that ultimately
benefits both the payers and the paid.
Just $25, and best of all, $17 from the sale of each plate will fund spay and neuter services for dogs and cats across Arizona. Click ad to order now at www.azpetplates.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TO ADVERTISE ON OUR BLOG
The above are paid ads. To place yours for just $25/month, call Jim Keyworth at (928) 517-1103 or e-mail peoplesgazette@gmail.com. Banner ads are also available across the bottom and top of the blog.
(The Rim Country Gazette Blog is currently averaging over 5,000 visits per month. Our readership survey shows Gazette readers are better educated and more affluent than the average newspaper reader. Gazette Blog ads reach the people most likely to vote and to use your services and products.)
Alternet
