The blog called “Misinformation Kills” usually focuses on COVID Lies and misinformation and their perpetrators. In this post, however, Dr. Alison Neitzel takes a different perspective on the money men who are undermining our democracy by capturing the courts.
She shows the outlines of a “vast rightwing conspiracy,” as described years ago by Hillary Clinton in 1998. At the time, people thought she was exaggerating. Now we know it exists.
It involves not only Harlan Crowe, the very generous benefactor of Justice Clarence Thomas, but Charles Koch and the mysterious Council on National Policy, where rightwing zealots meet and greet and plan their strategy.
Leonard Leo, the Catholic and deeply conservative leader of the Federalist society, planned the successful conquest of the U.S. Supreme Court. Donald Trump was his useful idiot.
Koch is all in for deregulation. But not when women’s reproductive rights are at issue.
Will Justice Thomas be held accountable for his unethical behavior? His benefactors will protect him. His dear personal friendship with Mr. Crowe began after Justice Thomas joined the Supreme Court. What a coincidence!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I do not think Justice Thomas will be held accountable. The Republican Party has already shown that they don’t care if one of their own breaks laws or is morally or economically corrupt in some way, as Justice Thomas allegedly has been from before he became a US. Supreme Court Justice.
Still, MAGA Republicans want Democrats who are accused of crimes with no evidence to be thrown out of office and locked up without trials.
On the same time, no matter how much evidence exists that a Republican has committed a crime, most Republican voters simply do not care.
Our two party system has spawned two sets of unwritten rules and these rules originated among MAGA RINO voters
If you are a Democrat you are guilty and shouldn’t be allowed to vote or lead.
Only Republicans should rule and do it with total power. Putin must doing all he can to support those Republicans just like he supported and still supports Traitor Trump. Putin has wanted to destroy the United States economically and politically for decades and now there are Americans who are doing it for him. And they are Republicans.
Since the GOP didn’t care that Trump tried to overturn the election by inciting a violent insurrection, why should they care that Justice Thomas took $1 million worth of vacations?
Give that lady a vegan cigar! As much as I want to agree with Lloyd, I can’t since one side is a cult. Fascist, even!
“Koch is all in for deregulation. But not when women’s reproductive rights are at issue.”
Republican definition: person: any human being or corporations who agree with me.
These people are to be accorded complete freedom, as they have been endowed by their creator with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property. The corporation, especially, has these rights.
Those who disagree have no rights. Women? Children? Democrats? Not people. Authors? These guys need governmental direction, lest the poison society with their ideas. Corporations that poison the water have rights. The people they poison are in danger of being woke. They need guidance.
Good Summary
“An infectious laboratory of democratic constriction courtesy of Federalist Society Legal Eagles. Corruptly Installed SCOTUS Majority. Rotten judicial districts. Minority authoritarians using constitutionalism to paralyze majority-elected officials.
Theda Skocpol, a professor of political science and sociology at Harvard, contends that many of the developments in states controlled by Republicans are a result of careful, long-term planning by conservative strategists.
Particularly those in the Federalist Society, who are developing tools to build what she called Minority Authoritarianism within the context of a nominally democratic system of government.”
https://digbysblog.net/2023/04/12/trump-losing-wont-solve-the-whole-problem/
“Careful long-term planning”
As example, Trump’s appointment of Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth District
Federalist Society
Knights of Columbus 2005- present
-formerly, general counsel to the Becket Fund
-received scholarly acclaim from Prof. Adrian Vermuele who advocates for immigration preference for Catholics
In May of 2021, Conscience Magazine (Catholics for Choice) quoted the SPLC (2016) about the Becket Fund, “Ideologically…a Roman Catholic campaign to create a separate space for religious people removed from public scrutiny and laws (though still while receiving public funds and subsidies.) The title of the Conscience article is, “Becket Fund: Shadow Agents of the Religious Right.” I highly recommend reading it.
Catholic organizations did not become the US’ 3rd largest employer without long term planning. It should surprise no one that the state Catholic Conferences have been leaders in the school choice effort nor that some paired with the Koch’s AFP for school choice rallies in the state capitols. What should shock everyone is that mainstream media won’t cover it.
Knights of Columbus as described at Wikipedia-“Knights have actively opposed the legalization of same sex marriage …(and) contributed over $1,000,000 to the Susan B Anthony Foundation and other anti-abortion and anti- contraception organizations…is a major donor to the USCCB…”
Skocpol won a lawsuit against Harvard (she was denied tenure because she was a woman). Harvard offered her a tenured position in 1984, which she accepted.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/ps-when-i-had-to-send-a-personal?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Speaking in Theda Skocpol, she was cited in a NY Times piece by Thomas Edsall several days ago.
“Theda Skocpol, a professor of political science and sociology at Harvard, contended that many of the developments in states controlled by Republicans are a result of careful, long-term planning by conservative strategists, particularly those in the Federalist Society, who are developing tools to build what she called ‘minority authoritarianism’ within the context of a nominally democratic system of government.”
“Skocpol outlined her thinking in an email:
T’he first-movers who figured out how to configure this new “laboratory of democratic constriction” were legal eagles in the Federalist Society and beyond, because the key structural dynamic in the current G.O.P. gallop toward minority authoritarianism is the mutual interlock between post-2010 Republican control, often supermajority control, of dozens of state legislatures and the SCOTUS decision in 2019 to allow even the most extreme and bizarre forms of partisan gerrymandering.’ ”
There’s lots more.
Quid Pro Crow
Quid pro Crow
It rules Supreme
On Court, you know
A common theme
Robert Reich • When I had to send a personal check to Bill Gates, for lunch
We can be certain of one thing.:
Bill definitely cashed that check.
He would have cashed it even if it had been for $10 rather than $135
Do you suppose Arne Duncan paid his own way when he had lunch with Bill Gates?
I wonder if Jeffrey Epstein sent Bill a “personal check” for lunch.
Epstein was not a federal employee. When I was Asst Secy of Education, I always paid my share of the check. We were required to have annual ethics briefings to be sure we followed the law.
Speaking of “COVID Lies and misinformation,” is there anyone here who think schools should be closed, with remote learning instead of in-person? Over a thousand people are dying from Covid each week, according to the CDC.
Are the hospitals turning away patients? Are there refrigerated trucks holding bodies because they can’t keep up?
You do realize that despite the fact there are still many deaths, the massive vaccination program has led to milder cases and while some are still severe and people die, it has not overwhelmed our health care system to the point where everyone but the most privileged were being endangered.
What kind of person are you who would make a comparison between today’s situation and the situation when schools were closed? I know my kid couldn’t get vaccinated until late spring of 2021, and younger ones even later. Schools opened Fall of 2021.
How about you ask one of the folks who spent March – December of 2020 working in a hospital overwhelmed with Covid patients whether the situation now is anything like the situation was when you were so angry that schools weren’t opened?
Were you working in a crowded, poorly ventilated office 40 hours/week in all of 2020?
You do realize that all schools have reopened but many BUSINESSES are still letting many of their employees work remotely.
Everyone who had a kid sick with ANYTHING from April 2020 to spring of 2021 knows that even pediatrician offices were trying to combat spread and putting off hospital based tests when possible was not unusual. Are you going to make a snide remark to your kids’ doctors about how they should return to the COVID protocols?
So what is your point?
So that’s a no, then.
So that’s a no, I was just trying to spread COVID lies and misinformation myself, then?
As usual, you asked a question you didn’t answer yourself. Are you one of the very few people who believes all schools should be closed with remote learning only now?