Sen. WH: Public Deserves To Know About Judges ‘Ushered By Secret Special Interests’ | The Last Word

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) joins Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss the need to investigate how “dark money” has influenced the country’s judicial system, including the three Supreme Court Justices nominated by Donald Trump who are now serving lifetime terms on the bench. Aired on 03/12/2021.
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Sen. WH: Public Deserves To Know About Judges ‘Ushered By Secret Special Interests’ | The Last Word

85 comments

  1. It’s nuts how unqualified some of them are, even the non-partisan ABA said so! Honestly, we need impeachments to remove the worst from the bench (including the Supreme Court).

    1. None more unqualified than Kavanaugh.

      A supreme court Judge who refused to answer a judge during his trial, then threw a temper tantrum like a petulant 5yr old child.

    2. I’ve posted this elsewhere here, but I’ll add it one more time here, since you sound like you’d like to take action on this issue:
      Former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner has done several vlogs about just this topic on YT & elsewhere. He offers info and opportunities for citizens to challenge unqualified/partisan judges, as well as a letter /citizens’ petition that any American may sign.
      To summarize a few of Kirschner’s points, one way we could oust e.g. Kavanaugh, is to launch a perjury inquiry, because it is known in legal circles that Kavanaugh indeed committed perjury (blatantly) during his confirmation hearings. If factual evidence of perjury is produced in such judicial inquiries, any judge — including a SCOTUS member — is automatically ousted (I’m pretty sure Kirschner said). 🙂

      And anyone in any courtroom in the land who hears a questionable verdict can challenge or complain about a judge’s lack of neutrality (or whatever). If judges get a certain number of such citizen’s complaints, they are sent for review. So Kirschner is mobilizing volunteers throughout the nation to monitor the decisions of especially the egregiously unqualified judges — they step out of line too often, they can indeed be removed. But for details — check out his vlogs.

  2. Respect Senator Whitehouse. I’ve been following him awhile and love he wants to show voters how to follow the money

    1. Everyone needs to read:
      ‘Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right’
      By: Jane Mayer

    1. The Dems stole the election and Trum I knew they would, that is why he said it would be settled in court. The Dems said they created the greatest election fraud in history. Biden said it in 2017. Trump just knew they would steal it. You know the dems stole the election. Evidence like crazy is out there.

    2. Sandy McConnell That’s odd, you say evidence is out there like crazy? If so tell us why no ones been able to find it. Don’t you think if all that evident that there was wide spread election fraud , someone would have come forward with proof of at least one or two cases?

    3. @Sandy McConnell Orange D “knew” the election would be rigged, stacked the courts in his favor, hand picked the election security team, and yet somehow sleepy Joe outsmarted him and all of his appointed judges and election officials by not only rigging the election under the entire country’s nose, but leaving ZERO EVIDENCE. Sounds like we may have elected John Wick.

    1. For all that don’t know much. Follow Roger stone the dark money dealer. And Trumpo the con man that is linked to that dark money dealer.

    2. @Give Peace a Chance that wouldn’t lead you anywhere. Just follow the R. Stone or even J Kutchner and you might be surprised how far it goes and where it leads.

    3. @Randy Hunt there is a reason why they repeat the exact same thing over and over. That’s Trump tactic 101. Actually he’s not the first one but that’s a well known tactic of his.

  3. Voter suppression is the GOP’s constant focus to prepare for the 2022 midterms. Cheating is the ONLY way Repugnants can win elections. This has been an-going strategy for some time now.

    1. This is why we must insist on boulder ID to prevent Republicans from stealing the next election. In every state in which there has been voter ID there is no vote fraud or vote regularity. Voter ID is the best way that we can ensure that Republicans will not steal the next election.
      Identification is universal. The old excuse that the poor cannot afford ID has been debunked. Strong voter ID is necessary to ensure that the Republicans cannot steal the next election. Insist that your state installed strong voter ID.

    2. @T. R. Campbell We’ve always had strong id for voters here in California. Since I’ve been voting as an 18 year old, I’ve always had to show I.D. That’s weird that you would just go into a polling place and not show i.d.

    3. @Trent Timoy Good for California. I can’t believe that progressives are so opposed to a strong voter ID law. Identification is universal and so necessary for almost anything we do now.

    4. @Sue Ann Smith We haven’t seen any water suppression. All Americans must be given the right to vote.

  4. Senator Whitehouse is the exception and one of the few politicians with the knowledge, intelligence, professionalism, honesty and integrity required to represent the interest of the people that elected him. Unfortunately most of them forget how they got a senate seat and why they are where they are, and their only goal is to get re-elected time after time, no matter at what cost.

    1. @jean reynolds “this problem” will in large part disappear when CU is eliminated and dark money in politics is outlawed. if the gop disappears too, then good riddance to bad rubbish.

    2. This guy is a quack and is involved any time democrat accuse republicans it’s always the Democrats doing it you watch fake news there communist they don’t hide it wake up really

  5. EVERY American NEEDS to know exactly what is happening with the courts.. This needs MORE exposure and attention ..

    1. I’ve posted this elsewhere here, but I’ll add it one more time here, since you sound like you’d like to take action on this issue:
      Former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner has done several vlogs about just this topic on YT & elsewhere. He offers info and opportunities for citizens to challenge unqualified/partisan judges, as well as a letter /citizens’ petition that any American may sign.
      To summarize a few of Kirschner’s points, one way we could oust e.g. Kavanaugh, is to launch a perjury inquiry, because it is known in legal circles that Kavanaugh indeed committed perjury (blatantly) during his confirmation hearings. If factual evidence of perjury is produced in such judicial inquiries, any judge — including a SCOTUS member — is automatically ousted (I’m pretty sure Kirschner said). 🙂

      And anyone in any courtroom in the land who hears a questionable verdict can challenge or complain about a judge’s lack of neutrality (or whatever). If judges get a certain number of such citizen’s complaints, they are sent for review. So Kirschner is mobilizing volunteers throughout the nation to monitor the decisions of especially the egregiously unqualified judges — they step out of line too often, they can indeed be removed. But for details — check out his vlogs.

    2. @B. Jones I have been subscribed to Mr. Kirshner’s channel since the beginning.. Excellent source.. thank you for your comment .. : D

    3. @bianca Don’t know your news sources, but I have seen and read repeated.deep dives on this issue. AP, Reuter’s, AXIOS, MSNBC, NYT, Vanity Fair, Skytel, POLITICO, CNN.

    1. Millions in Kavanaugh’s debts were paid off. Biden should expand the supreme court to mitigate their corruption

  6. Michael Flynn’s Russian money connection which was dropped by William Barr who was ordered by we-know-who needs to be opened to the Whole World to know.

    1. The military are now reactivating their case about that. It was put on hold because of the federal investigation but Barr and trump pardoned him so it was opened again.

    2. @01bigtrev
      The Military dealing with it is totally separate from the Federal Judicial System dealing with it, he is done.

    3. @TheTRUTHmatters!
      Nixon’s Attorney General was locked up, Nixon? Gerald Ford screwed up big time, he granted him a blanket pardon for “any and all criminal offences he did or might have committed while he was in office” BEFORE any charges were even filed. Because of “or might have” it actually stood up in Court.

    4. @TheTRUTHmatters! Let’s hope they do it really carefully and don’t miss anyone! Glad to see Nunes is finely back in the cross-hairs.

    1. Electing judges is also not a good idea. Then you get judges that look good on TV, could raise a lot of money of donors but not necessarily are good judges.
      Why not letting a non-partisan group of legal experts make a short list of for example three candidates for the president or the voters to choose from?

    2. @Mary Fitzpatrick All Federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the senate but you are right they can be elected as a judge to your state And fyi you don’t even have to have a law degree to be a federal judge. Unbelievable.

  7. Mitch McConnell is behind it, and facilitated it. Merrick Garland has a mountain of corruption to go through.

    1. @TheTRUTHmatters! Not true Mcconnell has hated trump all along and hated him long before Trump was elected, their relationship was a marriage of convenience because Trump was getting things done Mitch had been trying to do already and failed. They are both snakes but they really don’t like each other and never have

    2. @No Name McConnell doesn’t hate Trump…..he just doesn’t want to be one of his EXPANDABLES. He doesn’t want to take a fall for Trump when Trump xan trip himself up at every turn.

  8. Support this man. We need to get behind him. Senator Whitehouse you are doing what’s right for American Democracy and we are thankful for your diligence and service!

  9. “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through…all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.

    For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

    1. Wrong source, here is the right one: Taylor Caldwell 1900–85
      “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”
      ~ Taylor Caldwell 1900–85

    2. ​@productary com Are these words perhaps less effective? Are you able to grasp what they express anyway? So, don’t look at the label of the shoes but at their quality. They will serve you well even if the brand is not flashy 😉

    3. @Carlo Merli Janet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell (September 7, 1900 – August 30, 1985): The nature of human beings never changes; it is immutable. The present generation of children and the present generation of young adults from the age of thirteen to eighteen is, therefore, no different from that of their great-great-grandparents. Political fads come and go; theories rise and fall; the scientific ‘truth’ of today becomes the discarded error of tomorrow. Man’s ideas change, but not his inherent nature. That remains. So, if the children are monstrous today – even criminal – it is not because their natures have become polluted, but because they have not been taught better, nor disciplined. – On Growing Up Tough, chapter The Purple Lodge

      In her 1957 social/political article “Honoria” she chronicles the rise and fall of the fictitious country she calls “Honoria”. She ends the article with a very foreboding rebuke of society. “It is a stern fact of history that no nation that rushed to the abyss ever turned back. Not ever, in the long history of the world. We are now on the edge of the abyss. Can we, for the first time in history, turn back? It is up to you.”

      Many of Caldwell’s books centered on the idea that a small cabal of rich, powerful men secretly control the world.

    1. @norsktoolmaker88 In the last two presidential impeachments, the Senate voted almost entirely along party lines. That may have fatally injured the judicial function of the senate when it comes to impeaching judges as well as other officials. Another victory for McConnell and his plan to trash the “checks and balances” of the US constitution!

    2. @Faithless Hound I agree, the Senate is a dead end for now. McConnell has his troubles these days. Painted into a corner and writing act 3 as the chips fall.

    3. Research what a court watcher is from Glenn Kirschner with Justice Matters, it’s our method of righting each of McConAll’s wrong appointments.

    4. The Republicans will vote in a impeachment just like the did with Trump. It’s in their voter supresion self interest to keep the radicals in place to cover their shenanigans, and even crimes.

    5. @G Hill If they(GOP) ever get enough idiots to vote them into power in the House again they may try,…don’t hold your breath.

  10. The rest of the world figured out, centuries ago, that the idea of having judges appointed by politicians is insane.

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