CREEPING ELECTORAL SUBVERSION by the creepiest people

     The Constitution of the United States of America was signed on Sept 17, 1787, two hundred and thirty-five years ago. Most great political movements have had about a three hundred year life-span. The November 5 elections of 2024, may tell us unambiguously if we have reached the end of our great experiment in democracy. The sad thing is that one of the two influential parties has given up on legislating in favor of insult and invective. They fail even at that, in spite of being on the road to aquire those questionable qualities since at least the 1980s. Yet they manage to succeed at getting people elected.

We know how this occured. We know who the culprits are. Political pressure groups that call themselves think tanks, state Republican officials gaming the elections in red states to exclude or discourage some voters from voting, and then the Electoral college. Add in a compliant Supreme Court which owes their loyalty to the Federalist Society, a group that sees that conservative justices are handsomely rewarded for favorable rulings. Those rulings are unfavorable to the people of the United States while they benefit a small coterie of billionaires who are members of those think tanks. And now that Trump is facing multiple criminal charges, he is a member of that protected group. Then there are insults. Insults that often have no connection to the truth, yet are broadcast over a conservative media. The kind of insults you hear yelled at the refs in any pee-wee sporting event, insulting but without creativity. All of this can be attributed to the Republican party and the people who own it. It should surprise no one that the Republican party is no longer a party of conservative ideals, such as less intrusive government or lower taxes. It is a party that doesn't mind making draconian laws affecting women's reproductive choices, birth control methods, even in vitro fertilization. All to use as electoral fodder for securing the votes from a group of people not known for thinking deeply. Yet, when it comes to business, they demand less government regulation for polluters. One state Governor, Sam Brownback of Kansas, tried to make a law taxing the installation of home solar panels-because, I suppose, solar panels are "woke". That was a few years ago, Sam Brownback is no longer Governor, and the legislature yielded to the public unpopularity of that bill. This resistance, not surprisingly, is the key to taking back our country from the oligarchs and kleptocrats that have succeeded in fine-tuning democracy to favor their anti-democratic goals. I must warn you, however, that they have billions of dollars in personal wealth, and they don't mind spending it to get their political agenda fulfilled. An agenda that would shift the burden of taxation to the working people and away from them and their very wealthy friends. 

This shift in the role of money from the Scrooge McDucks of the American oligarchy is possible thanks to the Supreme Court decision on Citizens United v FEC. The five justices who ruled in favor of Citizens United held that, "independent political spending cannot be corrupt, and that such spending by corporations, and billionaires would be transparent. The use of the word combination, "cannot", should be a clue that this would be a huge mistake,  like calling the Titanic, upon christening, "unsinkable". Sometime after the Citizens United ruling, the corruption began to emerge more decisively. Not surprisingly that transparency became opaque. Harlon Crow, a white Texas billionaire became a "good friend" to Clarence and Ginny Thomas. It was Harlon Crow who put up the half-million dollars to create a 501(c)(4), Liberty Consulting, in Ginny Thomas' name. Leonard Leo, head of The Federalist Society, was on the board of directors. What could possibly go wrong? In the 16 years since this gift to wealthy plutocrats was handed down, Clarence (and Ginny) have received a non-repayable loan to purchase a luxury motor coach, been relieved from mortgage payments on Thomas' mother's house, where she now lives rent free, received free tuition to a private school for Thomas' nephew, whom they have adopted, received Indonesian vacations courtesy of Crow including executive jet flights, and extensive cruises on Crow's luxury yacht. Thomas even has attended the annual male-only Bohemian Grove retreat for wealthy plutocrats, held in Northern California along the (irony not intended) Russian River. Thomas may be the only African-American to attend this luxury event. Similar examples of largesse has been distributed among all six of the conservative justices. Sometimes hidden in  large payments to address conservative conclaves at luxury resorts, at other times; more openly questionable.

 

Justice Alito has been rewarded with at least one luxury salmon trip to Alaska, courtesy of Paul Singer, a hedge-funder with frequent business before the court. Justice Gorsuch had a cabin and 40 acres in Colorado that he had been trying for years to unload. Once he had been confirmed on the court, a buyer miraculously emerged. He was a principle of Greenberg Traurig, a gleaming wing-tip law firm with frequent business before the Supreme Court. Of course there was no quid pro quo. Justice Kavenaugh has had his gambling debts and mortgage conveniently erased, once he was able to dodge the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford's allegations of sexual assault, and get confirmed. Nothing so far has stuck, and he may have just inherited the money from his lobbyist father, as he claims. Forgive me if I remain suspicious. Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett does not appear to have any sketchy billionaire benefactors, though her husband has defended Fox news in the Dominion Voting Machine case. Maybe he's a crackerjack lawyer, but that stink of corruption is a popcorn fart that spreads over the entire Supreme Court. And then there is  Chief Justice, John Roberts. Working backwards from the present, his wife is a recruiter of legal talent, making some $10 million per anum for her services. There may be nothing suspicious here, though the influence of a Chief Justice couldn't hurt when selecting judicial talent. And really, $10 million is a rather paltry amount compared to some of the other conservative justices. But John Roberts name will remain on the list of sketchy Federalist appointees for his activities in the 2000 Florida vote recount. 

Some of you may have forgotten the  Presidential election of 2000, stolen by George W Bush, thanks to the Electoral college. There was a famous recount of votes in Miami-Dade County. Enough questionable votes to have swung the Electoral college to Al Gore. The governor of Florida at that time was another Bush which we did not get to beat around, older brother Jeb. His Secretary of State was a woman by the name of Kathryn Harris who will forever be remembered in infamy for the many suspiciously advantageous voting discrepancies in Florida. The recount called for in Miami-Dade County never made it to completion. It was broken up by a group of white men in expensive suits which became known as the Brooks Brothers Brigade. Three of its most famous members were, now Senator Ted Cruz, Appeals Court judge Judge John Roberts and attorney Brett Kavenaugh. Roberts and Kavenaugh were  destined to become members of the Supreme Court. Judge Roberts would become Chief Justice a short while after George W. Bush became president thanks to a convenient ruling by the Supreme Court in Bush v Gore. Naturally, everything was strictly on the up-and-up. Here again,  the stink of corruption remained. Three of the five conservative justices on the Supreme Court in the Bush v Gore case had family members expecting a job either in the Bush administration, or the RNC. No worries though, there was no collusion there. Chief Justice Reinquist, Justice Thomas, and Justice Scalia were just calling balls and strikes. There have been calls of outrage from legal scholars and Democratic legislators. They have been met with silence. 

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez has been, rightly, tried and found guilty of bribery, acting as a foreign agent, and obstruction of justice. All charges which could land in at least a couple Supreme Court justices laps, yet they remain untried and unmoved. I don't know what punishment Senator Menendez will receive, and I won't mourn if it is harsh. But I think democracy is not served when Supreme Court justices, or even lower court justices, are allowed to remain in their over-stuffed leather chairs after legal transgressions of a similar nature. As things stand now, there's not much that can be done unless the Senate can overcome a filibuster. The most blatantly corrupt Supreme Court in perhaps our entire history has no external controls to modify their court behavior. They are free to rule as their wealthy benefactors wish, and there is no one to discipline them for their transgressions. It is almost as if they could shoot someone on 5th Avenue.