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Gap03

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Gap03

  1. A great summary of where we are on this whole Clarence Thomas / Harlan Crowe situation by Jonathan Last:

    Quote

    MOAR GIFTS!

    This morning we awake to news that conservative billionaire Harlan Crowe also paid for a couple years of tuition at a private school for a kid Clarence Thomas and his wife were raising.

    Let me give you the most charitable reading of the story:

    In 1997 the Thomas’s brought their great nephew to live with them, presumably because his home life was not optimal. They took legal custody of him and raised him. Justice Thomas’s good friend Harlan Crowe suggested that the young man might thrive at Crowe’s alma mater, Randolph Macon Academy. Crowe then paid for the kid’s first year of tuition.

    After the first year, the child was sent to a different boarding school, in Georgia. Crowe paid for this year of tuition, too.

    This is the official story from journalist lawyer special-friend of the justice Mark Paoletta, who seems to have taken on the job of crisis coms for Thomas.¹

    How much did Crowe spend on tuitions for this kid? That’s unclear. More than $6,000. Maybe as much as $70,000. Fancy Southern boarding schools aren’t cheap.

    Was Thomas required by the letter of the law to disclose any of this?

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    But that’s not really the point.


    Even if Thomas was in some violation by not disclosing this . . . what do we call it? A gift? Help from a friend? Even then, it wouldn’t be the biggest deal in the world.

    Look: The Thomases did something extraordinary in taking this child in and raising him. God bless them for that. It sounds like they made a difference in his life. And when people take on extraordinary duties, sometimes they need help. That’s why friends and even strangers organize meal trains and start GoFundMe’s. When I was a kid and Hillary Clinton wrote It Takes a Village I laughed and called her a commie. Now that I’ve been around the block and seen the elephant, I realize she’s exactly right. Raising kids is hard. We all need help.

    But the ick-factor on this new Thomas story is that it’s part of a pattern.

    First we got the stories about Crowe donating money in order to pay the salary of Thomas’s activist/dilettante wife.

    Then we found out that Crowe provided many lavish vacations for Thomas and his wife.

    Then we learned about Crowe letting Thomas use his private jet for personal travel.

    Then we found out that Crowe paid for a gigantic monument to Thomas’s 8th grade teacher.

    Then it was discovered that Crowe bought property from Thomas and now allows Thomas’s mom to live rent-free in a house that he (Crowe) owns.

    Any one of these things and you might say, “Hmmm. That’s a little strange. But whatever. Rich people are weird and if you have a rich friend maybe they do weird friend stuff.”

    But take all of them together? Now we go from “a little weird” to “this is what cam girls hope for in a sugar daddy.”

    And call me crazy, but while it’s fine for Supreme Court justices to have good friends, I think it’s not healthy for the Court for them to have sugar daddies.

    The recap is perfect and restated for emphasis:

    "Any one of these things and you might say, “Hmmm. That’s a little strange. But whatever. Rich people are weird and if you have a rich friend maybe they do weird friend stuff.”

    But take all of them together? Now we go from “a little weird” to “this is what cam girls hope for in a sugar daddy.”

    And call me crazy, but while it’s fine for Supreme Court justices to have good friends, I think it’s not healthy for the Court for them to have sugar daddies."

    • Haha 3
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  2. 4 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

    Alito can get fucked 

    Alas, if only he could have gotten fucked in his youth, I suspect he wouldn't be the piece of shit he is today ...

  3. 32 minutes ago, TexEx15 said:

    Agreed. The facts he presents here is just mind boggling.

    Serious people like this guy and Katie Porter should be leading all Congressional budget discussions.  It's too bad the rest of Congress has absolutely no interest in actually addressing the deficit / national debt issues and instead are just hell-bent on (1) pointing fingers at the other side and (2) ensuring the pork continues to flow for their constituents.  Unfortunately, with the way the country is going, Jeff and Katie will be out of office in 2024 doing TED Talks.  Oh well ...

  4. 28 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

    add him to the list:

    And this motherfucker would have gotten off with suspended prison / jail time (for raping a foster child over multiple years) if the court hadn't rejected his plea deal:

    Quote

    In a proposed plea agreement filed for court's consideration dated Nov. 7, the maximum sentence for Koskan would have had a suspended execution of sentence with prison and jail time suspended. That plea agreement would have also included the following:

     

    • Completing a psycho-sexual assessment as well as pay the victim's individual therapy sessions with a therapist of her choosing if she decides to attend therapy, according to the agreement.
    • Paying the victim's course of study, including any tuition, fees, books and room/board at an accredited academic institution. The obligation will cease upon the victim's graduation or until she reaches the age of 22, whichever comes first, according to court documents.
    • A 2017 Chevy Malibu in the victim's possession provided by Koskan will be signed over to her guaranteeing her continued use of the vehicle.
    • Providing health, eye and dental insurance for the victim until she graduates or reaches the age of 22, whichever comes first, according to court documents.
    • Koskan will have no contact, either by direct or indirect means, except as authorized by the court with the victim.
     

    Judge rejects Joel Koskan's plea deal in child abuse case (argusleader.com)

    wtf-what-the-fuck.gif

  5. 6 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

    Huh. This must be something new.  Also, your echo chamber is showing.  The fastest growing demographic in firearm purchases are first time POC.   Might want to look a bit deeper into your majority. 

    ... he says with no introspection whatsoever ...

    awkward-side-eye.gif

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  6. 3 minutes ago, HamsterHookah said:

    I read somewhere that this guy had no legal record or medical alerts and was generally a regular guy who didn't raise alarms with neighbors, etc. Short of pre-crime and thought police, how can you keep guns away (in the current status quo) from someone who is mentally ill but hasn't been flagged as it yet?

    That was my questioning response to sawbonz as a response to his rhetorical question.

    Well, it would seem that he had so many concussions as an athlete that he wore a helmet when playing basketball.  Given the correlation between CTE and impulsive / aggressive / violent behavior, maybe we could require a bit higher threshold before we let someone with this history buy a gun - especially an AR-15?

     

    USATSI_20435139.jpg?resize=683,1024&qual

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  7. 1 minute ago, CTC2 said:

    The politicians in power in Texas reflect the positions and will of those who elected them.  The TexAgs politics board is probably way more reflective of the sentiment in Texas than anything you would find stated in the Cloak Room. 
    Texas politics is shitty because most of the electorate is shitty. 

    alonzo-mourning-gary-payton.gif

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  8. 35 minutes ago, Satchel said:

    I have to agree. The Texas Three of Abbott, Paxton and Patrick is hard to beat.

    It's a testament to how shitty Texas politics is when you have a discussion about the shittiest politicians in the state and don't even get to Ted Cruz (with shitstains like Gohmert, Sid Miller, Chip Roy, Troy Nehls, Jared Patterson, Brisoe Cain and Bryan Hughes still sitting on the bench).  Fuck this state sucks.

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  9. 2 hours ago, Mo Horn said:

    Might as well just cancel SXSW, Austin City Limits, and close down most of 6th street. Sorry broadway fans, Bass will no longer be bringing in shows. All local news anchors are out of jobs. Oh, and I hope next time hot wheels is giving an address on TV, there better be police ready to arrest him. 

    Nahh - it's limited to cross-dressing performers:

    Quote
    Sec. 43.28.  CERTAIN SEXUALLY ORIENTED PERFORMANCES
      PROHIBITED. (a) In this section, "sexually oriented performance"
      means a visual performance that:
                   (1)  features:
                         (A)  a performer who is nude, as defined by
      Section 102.051, Business & Commerce Code; or 
                         (B)  a male performer exhibiting as a female, or a
      female performer exhibiting as a male, who uses clothing, makeup,
      or other similar physical markers and who sings, lip syncs, dances,
      or otherwise performs before an audience; and
                   (2)  appeals to the prurient interest in sex.

    So it could definitely end impacting Kiss or Poison, but unfortunately wouldn't catch this (as much as I'd love it if it did):

    giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e477o4g87ussube1c2lb4

  10. 6 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

    What kind of person has 8 cAses before the Supreme Court ?

    Rich fuckers who want to make sure that nobody is going to stand between them and "their money" or stop them from keeping their boots on the necks of the common man?

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  11. 36 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    Again....that approach works really, really well.  It's terribly effective.  Right up until the moment it's not.  And that's the moment you end up at an Esso station.  

    I like this idea as the first step for the counter-fascist movement.  We should definitely buy up some gas stations close to the fascist centers of the country (Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Idaho, etc.) and re-brand them old school Esso as a not-so-subtle warning of what comes next ...

     

    FRcl8erXEAEH7Yh?format=jpg&name=large

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