this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
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politics

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[–] Minotaur@lemm.ee 125 points 9 months ago (7 children)

I saw this on twitter and it was really funny/bizarre to see how many blue check marks were going “wow… hope this MR OLIVER enjoys going to jail for BRIBERY” and like, making threats of ‘reporting him’, quoting legal statutes.

It’s just so goofy, like comically dumb. Aside from “obviously a joke” points, who are the big Clarence Thomas defenders??? Do people really just make their opinions based on “well, liberals don’t like him… which means he must be good!!”

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 125 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Half of the schtick John Oliver is making is pointing out the absurdity of his offer being legal. The fact that people are reporting him just shows how they think there should be laws against paying off a Supreme Court judge, which is the exact point being made in the segment.

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 58 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's totally legal. He's not offering to pay Thomas to change his rulings or rule in his favor. It's so he resigns. Closer to an early retirement offer.

If the highest court in the land can be paid to go away, they shouldn't have been justices because they were in it for the money. It also says damning things about our society and how money can trump extreme satisfaction at your job.

[–] andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun 20 points 9 months ago

Pretty sure it's a bog standard job offer. No, you can't keep your current job, sorry. No over employment here.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 72 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Do people really just make their opinions based on “well, liberals don’t like him… which means he must be good!!”

That's exactly what those muppets do

[–] Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world 24 points 9 months ago

Yeah, I have literally had people tell me they didn't like someone they voted for, but they really piss off the liberals.

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 41 points 9 months ago (2 children)

It's not illegal, though. That was a big part of the whole offer.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

I don't know man, a bunch of dipshits on Twitter are probably just as good as the lawyers John Oliver checked with.

[–] JPAKx4@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 9 months ago

Yeah, if influencing a judge on the bench isn't illegal, how would influencing one off of it be?

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So... John would be bribing Thomas to NOT be a supreme court justice...? What... what do they imagine the penalty for that would be?

I get that most of these people aren't rational, but I'm struggling to even imagine what the mental gymnastics on this look like. Is there some penalty for bribing someone who is not a public official?

[–] Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Plus it's not even a bribe. It's a not-job offer at best.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 15 points 9 months ago

A retirement offer.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 12 points 9 months ago

Yes that is what people base their opinions on.

[–] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Checkout the conservative comm on Lemm.ee
Heads in the sand.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 27 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You're a smarter man than I am

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It was always a struggle to not check r/conservative to see their braindead takes back on Reddit.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 months ago

Sometimes I check those spaces to try to wrap my head around their mindset, but nothing's really made much sense to me yet

[–] MonsiuerPatEBrown@reddthat.com 2 points 9 months ago

I mean ... it would point out how all those other people bribed Justice Thomas already then, too, huh ?

[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 65 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Look, I'm just glad HBO let's it happen. Fucking Apple got their panties in a knot when Stewart just said words.

[–] simplejack@lemmy.world 28 points 9 months ago

This is a topic that Apple probably wouldn’t have cared about. Stewart had a lot of episodes about terrible people in American government.

The rumored problem with The Problem is that he wanted to start tackling topics like China and AI. In the China example, Apple was probably terrified that China would do what they’ve done to every other media company that talk shit about the CCP. China halts sales of their products.

All in all, it’s not the words, it’s the money. It’s always about the money at the end of the day.

[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 24 points 9 months ago

In the end, Stewart at least assumed that Apple knew what his messaging was, how hard he would work to send that message and how many zero fucks he gives.

In the end, Apple tucked tail and hid behind dollars and made it obvious.

At least HBO gives this vibe of, yes, he wastes our money to create large animatronic eagles, but wedges in building websites to absolutely fuck with people to get his message across. Oliver has never mentioned HBO saying no to him.

I am also in no way defending HBO. They have done some gross stuff, too. This is simply an Apple vs. HBO argument.

[–] twistypencil@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

This is not HBOs money, it's actually his

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yup. Fuck Apple. Fuck Blizzard... Man, there's a list now... Whose keeping track? Please post it.

[–] n3m37h@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Embracer Group.

Black Rock.

Goldman Sachs.

[–] RHSJack@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Let's make it difficult. Companies you LOVE but hate what they have done: Trader Joes Nintendo My favorite hot chocolate mixer with a "brand" name that has a cute website and social media and everything<-wholly owned by Nestle which is not mentioned anywhere in the label.

[–] JaymesRS 47 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

I’d totally be willing chip in $20/month for the next 10 years.

[–] Kraven_the_Hunter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 60 points 9 months ago

Sally Struthers on the verge of tears: For less than the price of a cup of coffee each week, you can help remove a corrupt Supreme Court Justice and bring hope to millions.

[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago

I'd triple that. I'd eat Ramen twice a day to afford it but God dammit I'd do it.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 2 points 9 months ago

Sometimes I think the world is full of people who would be worth bribing to go away. For example, businesses that save 3¢ per unit of some food product by using unsafe ingredients. If only we could just pay them 3¢ per unit not to do that!

I realize it feels awful to pay off evil people and it would incentivize even more bad behavior, but I'm just shocked at how much damage people are willing to do for so little benefit to themselves.

[–] LovingHippieCat@lemmy.world 42 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

In case anyone wants to watch the video, like I do on Monday mornings, turns out HBO is now posting them on youtube on Thursdays so as to "drive up viewership" on Max.

[–] DataDisrupter@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

To the high seas it is then!

[–] XTornado@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

They just told you that is free on YouTube 😂 no need for the high seas. Well some AdBlock might advised.

EDIT: That said... all I could see is older videos... so maybe either is region locked and that's why I don see them, not from the US, or I misunderstood something from Op.

[–] spooksboots@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The latter I think, it's not online because it isn't Thursday yet :)

[–] XTornado@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago

Yeah but I didn't see the previous week one that was my point as he already was on it last week.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 1 points 9 months ago

Plus it's not the full ep on yt, just the main segment

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 0 points 9 months ago

It's also quite funny.

[–] frefi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Thomas is probably already being paid more than that to just keep doing what he's doing

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 22 points 9 months ago

It's a well-known recorded fact that he is.

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Plus, taking the deal would be publically admitting that he knows what he's currently doing is wrong.

[–] frefi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, good point. Also, I think Oliver knows Thomas wouldn't take the offer (even if it was higher) and he's basically just doing this for the lols, which I can appreciate

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 3 points 9 months ago

I think it's more than just for the lolz...it reframes the issue. It makes you think "how could we get this POS off the bench?"

It's like when he buys up debt or whatever... He's demonstrating how the problem is clearly fixable, even if he only fixed one drop in the bucket

[–] books@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

My guess is that Thomas will use this as an opening bid and see if he can get more from conservatives to wait until a Republican president is in office.

[–] chetradley@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Good. If people can just straight up buy Supreme Court justices they should at least be expensive.