Monday, June 26, 2023

I did Alito’s ethics prep for his confirmation hearing. His new excuses are nonsense.

 https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/alito-supreme-court-ethics-scandal-vacation-rcna90819

And in any event, the free travel to Alaska had to be disclosed. Alito invokes the “empty seat theory” to say he hitched a ride on Singer’s plane that was headed to Alaska anyway, that it didn’t cost Singer anything additional, and thus was not a gift that needed to be disclosed. This is utter nonsense, of course. In ethics meetings my staff and I also discussed and poked fun of the empty seat theory. No American who is not a Supreme Court justice (or perhaps an ethically challenged governor) can just hitch a ride on a billionaire’s private plane. Try using the empty seat theory to board a plane or a cruise ship without a ticket and see what happens.


21 comments :

  1. > No American who is not a Supreme Court justice (or perhaps an ethically challenged governor) can just hitch a ride on a billionaire’s private plane.

    That's clearly a lie. People of influence in government get stuff like this all the time. (Look up Justin Trudeau, Aga khan, vacation)

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  2. So you think he was justified because your friend Trudea acts that way and it is normal to give 2 billion dollars to an investment fund run by an inexperienced manager because he used to be in the government deciding issues you view as critical. Any corruption which is common is ok?!
    And if he had said no American can kill or rob a bank you would similarly reply "they do it all the time"

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  3. No, I think that if Trudeau is still prime minister despite multiple major ethical lapses including trying to influence the outcome of a government prosecution, then huffing and puffing about Trump is hypocrisy.
    If corruption is bad, then it's bad for anyone. If it's okay for the Left, then leave the Right alone when they do the same thing.

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  4. Yes it is bad but where is the proof of Biden crime family?
    You are falsely claiming the corruption on left is s bad as on the right - but no evidence of such

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  5. There's plenty of evidence of Biden corruption, as the Twitter files reveal

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  6. 2 billion is not just handed over,
    The investment firm will come up with a deal, eg to buy the Macy's store for so much. The money will then follow if it makes sense.
    How people make contacts, employ people, and do business is up to them. Perhaps some western firms will advertise, but a lot is done through headhunters.
    Now an Arab prince will prefer to do business with someone he's invited to his tent. Maybe he prefers Al Yahud to an infidel, because he doesn't eat chazir.?
    That is how business is done.

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  7. Wow!
    So instead of answering the question you say it is in the Twitter files or Biden's laptop or a Whisle blpwer's claim
    Not like Republicans who simply mumble corrupt money laundering or lock her up etc. etc.

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  8. Twitter files is about the laptop - which was not a corrupt act except in the nonsense world of Fox News and the Republican party

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  9. If Trump were to come out and announce that the founding of Israel in 1948 is the more inspiring event of the 20th century, would you start posting PLO propaganda?

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  10. some "frum" people do that even if they support Trump

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  11. You mistakenly think that Trump is being picked on - in fact he is a criminal narcissist who has done the things he is accused of
    Typical defense is what about Biden or Obama.?
    Pointing out mostly self confessed crimes is not wrong except if the criminal is Trump

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  12. Are you serious?!
    If Trump defended anti-semites you think I would respond by defending Jews?!

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  13. No, but if Biden defended anti-Semites, you'd respond by posting stuff from Vox and CNN showing that, well, they're not really anti-Semites, and, wait, there's Trump!

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  14. the point you should address is whether Biden intervenes to help his son out - whcih as an individual, he has a chiyuv to do, but as President it is corruption/nepotism

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  15. So you buy Trump's claim that he is perfect but is a just a victim of the Left, Democrats or the Media

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  16. So Trump is different - not because he commits more crimes but is the victim of a doublr standard. Who else commits as many crimes with clear evidence?
    In short Trump is accused of many crimes because he did them while Biden is accused of many crimes that he didn't do in order to distract from Trump!

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  17. do you have evidence? Orare you simply playing evil's advocate

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  18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biden–Ukraine_conspiracy_theory

    The false conspiracy relies on the concept of quid pro quo with the lie blaming then Vice President Biden withheld loan guarantees to pressure Ukraine into firing a corrupt prosecutor. This is in contrast to the attempted quid pro quo when President Trump unsuccessfully tried to pressure Ukrainian President Zelensky in a quid pro quo manner to start a publicly announced investigation of Burisma and the Bidens in exchange for military aid.[19] This led to President Trump's first impeachment.

    In January 2018, a videotaping by the Council on Foreign Relations shows Biden taking credit for withholding the loan guarantees to have the prosecutor fired. His actions were implementations of bipartisan US policy rather than done for any of the reasons alleged in the conspiracy theory.[24][25][26]

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  19. http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2023/06/was-ukrainian-prosecutor-viktor-shokin.html
    Shokin was not prosecuting Burisma.

    EVIDENCE

    While there had been an investigation of the company, Shokin's former deputy, Vitaliy Kasko, has said that it was dormant at the time of Joe Biden's intervention. (The former US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, George Kent, testified in Trump's impeachment inquiry that Shokin was corrupt; the US and its allies had made a coordinated effort to oust him.)

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  20. He benefitted from this _ is it corruption? I don't know

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  21. Interesting definition of corruption and you think this might be corruption?!
    Supreme court justices clearly disagree as do most people including Republicans

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