4 ms·

I would be surprised if there was an "industry" without kickbacks.

by datadeft 3y ago

doryWalnut 3y ago
[flagged]
- metadat 3y ago
  Holy unethical kickback batman. This appears to be true, unveiled only yesterday: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/04/harlan-crow-bought-clarence-thomass-mothers-house.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/04/harlan-crow-bought-c... https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate-scotus https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-cr... https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/clarence-thomas-mom-billionaire-house.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/clarence-thomas-... Discussed yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35581266 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35581266 And flagged after 80 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35467948 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35467948
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- Wowfunhappy 3y ago
  It should be noted that this isn't normal! He may get away with it because he's a supreme court justice, our supreme court sucks right now, and our constitution provides insufficient checks on the supreme court's power. But there's a reason Pro Publica did an exposé.
  - thatguy0900 3y ago
    We just found out about this recently. How do we know it's not normal? This wasn't even the only thing, he also received multiple all expense paid luxery vacations from rich people. Surely his fellow justices have questions about his exotic all expense paid trips. If anything I would assume they are doing similar things until proven otherwise.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    > He may get away with it because he's a supreme court justice That would be a massive blow against the system.
    - Wowfunhappy 3y ago
      I agree!
    - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
      Impeachment by the house and conviction in the senate afterwards have high bars. Impeachment doesn’t happen very often, only once for a Supreme Court justice (and the senate didn’t convict).
  - yieldcrv 3y ago
    > It should be noted that this isn't normal! You don't know that. This whole expose is about the weakness of the disclosure rules levied on Supreme Court justices, the gaps, the amount open to interpretation. The only assurance you have is that some level of compliance is normal because a disclosure happened before. "hey look, they actually disclosed something! good thing I don't live in this *other* corrupt country in the world where you would be disappeared for saying this! American exceptionalism!"
PragmaticPulp 3y ago
You can find kickbacks everywhere, but in some industries it's so deeply embedded in the culture that it's nearly impossible to find any alternatives. The common theme is that there is usually a bottleneck, monopoly, gatekeeper, or government-mandated middleman. This is what enables the kickback scheme to work without the threat of clean alternatives competing with it. Ports are ripe for corruption and kickbacks because there aren't many of them. If you want to get your cargo in or out, you have to go through a nearby port. Trucking the freight to a different port is more expensive than any bribes/kickbacks/corruption (by design) so people just settle and pay it.
- giantg2 3y ago
  And of course the government embraces kickbacks and "political horse trading" when it benefits them, just like the recent Apple tax thing.

I would be surprised if there was an "industry" without kickbacks.

doryWalnut 3y ago

[flagged]

metadat 3y ago
Holy unethical kickback batman. This appears to be true, unveiled only yesterday: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/04/harlan-crow-bought-clarence-thomass-mothers-house.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/04/harlan-crow-bought-c... https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate-scotus https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-cr... https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/clarence-thomas-mom-billionaire-house.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/clarence-thomas-... Discussed yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35581266 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35581266 And flagged after 80 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35467948 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35467948
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
Wowfunhappy 3y ago
It should be noted that this isn't normal! He may get away with it because he's a supreme court justice, our supreme court sucks right now, and our constitution provides insufficient checks on the supreme court's power. But there's a reason Pro Publica did an exposé.
- thatguy0900 3y ago
  We just found out about this recently. How do we know it's not normal? This wasn't even the only thing, he also received multiple all expense paid luxery vacations from rich people. Surely his fellow justices have questions about his exotic all expense paid trips. If anything I would assume they are doing similar things until proven otherwise.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  > He may get away with it because he's a supreme court justice That would be a massive blow against the system.
  - Wowfunhappy 3y ago
    I agree!
  - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
    Impeachment by the house and conviction in the senate afterwards have high bars. Impeachment doesn’t happen very often, only once for a Supreme Court justice (and the senate didn’t convict).
- yieldcrv 3y ago
  > It should be noted that this isn't normal! You don't know that. This whole expose is about the weakness of the disclosure rules levied on Supreme Court justices, the gaps, the amount open to interpretation. The only assurance you have is that some level of compliance is normal because a disclosure happened before. "hey look, they actually disclosed something! good thing I don't live in this *other* corrupt country in the world where you would be disappeared for saying this! American exceptionalism!"

PragmaticPulp 3y ago

You can find kickbacks everywhere, but in some industries it's so deeply embedded in the culture that it's nearly impossible to find any alternatives. The common theme is that there is usually a bottleneck, monopoly, gatekeeper, or government-mandated middleman. This is what enables the kickback scheme to work without the threat of clean alternatives competing with it. Ports are ripe for corruption and kickbacks because there aren't many of them. If you want to get your cargo in or out, you have to go through a nearby port. Trucking the freight to a different port is more expensive than any bribes/kickbacks/corruption (by design) so people just settle and pay it.

giantg2 3y ago
And of course the government embraces kickbacks and "political horse trading" when it benefits them, just like the recent Apple tax thing.