It’s not just seizing yachts and mansions: The West is using a 3-pronged approach to punish Russia

Insider

It’s not just seizing yachts and mansions: The West is using a 3-pronged approach to punish Russia

Hillary Hoffower – March 26, 2022

russia ukraine conflict
People are calling for peace amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.picture alliance/Getty Images
  • Russia’s economy is already at risk of a recession due to sanctions by Western powers.
  • There are three types of sanctions: government, industry, and individual sanctions.
  • From banning oil to seizing oligarchs’ yachts, the US and its allies have been enacting all of them.

Western powers have piled on the sanctions against Russia in an attempt to isolate the country and its economy.

Sanctions are the withdrawal of trade or other financial relationships for foreign policy or security reasons, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit US think tank. They’re a common tactic for preventing an all-out war from breaking out.

This time, they’re part of retaliation against Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia invaded Ukraine. A month after the invasion began, the Russian economy is now at risk of falling into recession.

That’s because the US, UK, and European Union are pulling out all three types of sanctions. Daniel Gielchinsky, an attorney at DGIM Law, PLLC in Aventura, Florida, who specializes in commercial litigation and finance law broke them down for Insider.

Cut the Russian government out of international systems

A prime example of a government sanctioning another government is the Western effort to block certain Russian banks from accessing SWIFT, a global communications service that clears international financial transactions. Consider a pre-sanction Russian oil sale to the US: It would have cleared through SWIFT.

“If you kick a member nation out of SWIFT, you’re basically telling them you cannot participate in international trade,” Gielchinsky said, adding that it’s the first time in history that a group of governments has done this. “Russia has basically been ostracized from the international economy.”

The US also froze $630 billion in assets held by the Russian Central Bank, preventing the country from using that pile of international reserves to finance its attack on Ukraine or prop up the economy. Such sanctions are unheard of, escalating the economic punishment against Russia.

Sever ties with certain businesses and industries

Because this tier of sanctions involves severing ties with certain types of businesses and industries, they’re kind of a subset of a sanction against the government, Gielchinsky said. “You’re saying, ‘We won’t buy from them. We won’t sell to them. And anyone who’s buying or selling from them, we won’t do business with them either.'”

That was President Joe Biden’s intention when he announced earlier this month that the US would ban all Russian energy imports, which would affect imports of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas, and coal. A few days later, the US also banned imports of Russian seafood, vodka, and diamonds.

High-end exports to Russia, including watches, cars, and high-end alcohol, are also on the ban list of the US and some of its European allies. The White House estimated those exports amounted to $550 million a year.

These kinds of sanctions can be “very tough,” Gielchinsky said.

Hit key players where it hurts

Western alliances have been increasingly hitting powerful Russian elites with personal sanctions. This is the rarest form of sanction, Gielchinsky said, adding that it’s a “very harsh” measure.

The oligarchs targeted here are what Gielchinsky calls “Putin’s inner circle of very wealthy people.”

“They support his campaigns. They support his policies,” he said. “Their companies generate the wealth, the jobs, the votes that he needs to stay wherever he is and to keep the country moving. When you call out these individuals, it’s a very strong statement, as close as you can get to calling out the president himself, which just doesn’t happen.”

So far, the US, UK, EU, and Canada have all frozen oligarchs’ assets in participating countries and banned them from conducting business there. Some US lawmakers are also hoping to pass legislation that would allow the federal government to seize oligarch assets valued above $5 million, such as real estate and yachts. The measure would fall in line with sanctions already implemented by other countries, such as France, which recently seized a $120 million superyacht owned by the Russian oligarch Igor Sechin.

With sanctions like this, Gielchinsky said, governments are saying, “‘We’re coming for you.'”

Ukraine says ‘Nazis have returned’ as Russian shelling wrecks Drobitsky Yar

Business Insider

Ukraine says ‘Nazis have returned’ as Russian shelling wrecks Drobitsky Yar — the 2nd Holocaust memorial to be bombed during the war

Joshua Zitser – March 26, 2022

Ukraine says ‘Nazis have returned’ as Russian shelling wrecks Drobitsky Yar — the 2nd Holocaust memorial to be bombed during the war
  • Russian forces damaged a Holocaust memorial near Kharkiv on Saturday, Ukraine’s defense ministry said.
  • “The Nazis have returned,” the ministry said, echoing Zelenskyy’s comparison of the invasion to the Holocaust.
  • The bombing of Drobitsky Yar marks the second Holocaust monument to be bombed during the war.

Russian forces shelled and damaged a monument in the Drobitsky Yar Holocaust memorial complex on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Ukraine’s ministry of defense said.

“The Nazis have returned,” the ministry said in a Twitter post. “Exactly 80 years later.”

Drobitsky Yar is where SS officers shot approximately 15,000 Jews in December 1941, during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, according to the World Jewish Congress. Children were thrown into pits alive, where they would quickly freeze to death, to save bullets.

The atrocities were memorialized in 2002 when a Holocaust memorial complex featuring a giant black menorah was built.

Menorah at Drobytsky Yar in Ukraine in 2017.
Menorah at Drobytsky Yar in Ukraine in 2017.Ace^eVg via Wikimedia Commons

Russian artillery shelling damaged the menorah on Saturday, The Jerusalem Post reported, marking the second Holocaust memorial site to be bombed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian forces dropped bombs on the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial on March 1.

Nazis carried out some of World War II’s deadliest massacres at Babyn Yar. An estimated 100,000 to 150,000 people were murdered at the site, including approximately 33,000 Jews.

“History repeating,” Zelenskyy, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, said in a March 1 tweet.

The deadly war in Ukraine has featured a lot of rhetoric relating to the Nazis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried to justify his unprovoked invasion by claiming that he wishes to “de-Nazify” the country and baselessly accuses Ukraine of genocide.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, has compared the Russian military assault of his country to the Holocaust. Last week, he claimed to Israeli lawmakers last week that Russia is attempting to carry out a “final solution.”

Similarly, Mariupol’s mayor Vadym Boichenko likened allegations of forced deportations of Ukrainians to enemy cities to the deportation of victims during the “final solution” stage of the Holocaust.

France’s Macron: aiming to talk to Putin in next 48-72 hours over Mariupol siege

Reuters

France’s Macron: aiming to talk to Putin in next 48-72 hours over Mariupol siege

March 25, 2022

European Union leaders summit amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Brussels

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron said he was targeting more talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin within the next 48-72 hours regarding the situation in Ukraine and an initiative to help people leave the besieged city of Mariupol.

Macron said he was coordinating efforts with Greece and Turkey and hoped to convince Russia to allow the evacuation.

The southeastern port of Mariupol, a city of 400,000 before the war, has been among the worst hit by the Russian bombardment. Tens of thousands of people are still believed to be trapped with little access to food, power or heat, while the city around them has been reduced to ruins.

There was a concrete discussion today with the Mayor of Mariupol. We are coordinating and we will then negotiate with the Russians,” Macron told reporters after an EU summit in Brussels. “The quickest possible, we hope in the next few days. I will have a conversation with President Putin in the next 48 to 72 hours to finalize the details and modalities. It is urgent,” added Macron.

Moscow signalled on Friday it was scaling back its ambitions in Ukraine to focus on territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists as Ukrainian forces went on the offensive to recapture towns on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv.

(Reporting by John Irish;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

This open letter is from an Iowa Teacher addressed to FOX News host, Tucker Carlson, and is a MUST-READ!

Posted on FB by Rhae Ann Theriault – March 24, 2022
May be an image of 2 people

Dear Tucker Carlson:

Hey Tuck, I just finished watching a segment of your show. You know, the one where you suggest that there should be a camera in every classroom in order to root out… let me get this accurate…”civilization ending poison.”

I’m going to zig where you thought most teachers would zag. I welcome your Orwellian cameras in my classroom. Frankly, I don’t know many teachers who would object to having people watch what we do. As a matter of fact, I hate to tell you this Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson, but most of us spent the last year having video cameras in our classrooms.

See, I think you believe that your suggestion that people see what happens in our classrooms will somehow scare teachers. The truth of it is that we have been begging for years to have people, such as yourself, come into our classrooms. I somewhat famously asked Ms. DeVos to visit a public school before she became Secretary of Education (https://www.huffpost.com/…/an-introduction-from-public…). It’s unclear whether she has yet to set foot in an actual public school classroom, but I digress. I sense that you think you’ll see all of us pinko teachers speaking endlessly about Critical Race Theory leading to…and again, let me get this right, “civilization ending poison.” I’ve been in a lot of classrooms (more than you I am willing to bet) and think you’re going to be disappointed on that front. What happens in America’s classrooms is teaching and learning. Your “spy cameras” will see teachers and students working together to be better every day.

I’ll tell you what I saw on a tour of classrooms not that long ago. I saw a group of kindergartners trying to create bridges over running water with basic classroom supplies in a lesson about collaboration. I saw a high school literature class talking about the character development in The Glass Menagerie. I saw a middle school history class participating in group project where they had to solve problems in a fictional city, with specifics of how they would utilize resources and build public support for their projects. Anyone watching your cameras will see learning…all day every day. For those who watch your “nanny cams” carefully, they’ll see a lot of other things as well. They will see teachers working with students who have vastly different life experiences. They will see students who are fluent in multiple languages working with teachers to become proficient in yet one more language. They will see students who are hungry get their one solid meal a day in the cafeteria. They will see students itching for more fine arts, industrial technology, or world languages to be offered in their school. In my classroom, if we’re being honest, they’ll probably hear some sketchy intonation from my saxophones, and I promise we’re working on it. But for sure, they will see learning… all day every day.

To be honest, I’m fascinated by the logistics of your proposal. In a world where school districts are struggling to recruit and maintain teachers, who is going to man your “citizen review boards” (setting aside the fact that public school teachers already answer to publicly elected school boards)? For instance, in my school district I sense you would need well over 500 cameras going every day. Who watches those 500 screens 10 hours a day (I want you watching my 7 am jazz band and my after school lessons)? What qualifications would these “experts” need to know what they were watching for? What happens when they catch a teacher teaching… let me get this right… ”civilization ending poison?” Who do they report that to? I’m also curious who will pay for all of this incredible technology. Maybe I missed it, but can you point me to a K-12 institution where Critical Race Theory is being taught? Hell, can you define Critical Race Theory for all of us? I’m sure you’ve got answers to all of these questions.

Frankly, I’ve never been able to figure out, instead of dreaming up Orwellian plans to have Big Brother in all of our classrooms, why you don’t round up an army of bright young conservatives to actually step up and teach? Is it because teachers work hard, aren’t paid as much as those with similar educational backgrounds, don’t have support from our elected officials, constantly serve as punching bags for those who don’t understand public education, or is it just because it’s easier to throw rocks at a house than to build one?

Here’s the real deal Tuck, I grew up with my mom making me eat your family’s Salisbury Steaks once every couple of weeks (his family makes Swanson TV dinners) for many years. I struggle to take advice on teaching and learning from a guy who makes a steak that, on its best day, tastes like shoe leather that has been left out in a goat pasture for a few weeks. I get that Critical Race Theory is your latest attempt to scare your easily manipulated demographic, but let’s just admit that you don’t know what you’re talking about.

With all of that being said, count me on the cameras Tucky. Like many teachers, I’m in the early stages of understanding Critical Race Theory (most of us hadn’t heard about it until you and your people started crying about it), but if you find me teaching it, have one of the Tucker Youth watching your surveillance devices let me know. If Critical Race Theory involves talking honestly about American history, I’m probably doing that sometimes. I spent much of the last six years advocating for a way for teaching to become more transparent, and in the dumbest way possible, you are joining that crusade. Let’s make this happen TV Dinner Boy.

Sincerely, Patrick J. Kearney. Actual Teacher(Copied from Kim Larkin-Floria)

UK to fund 2 million pounds of food supplies for encircled Ukrainian cities

Reuters

UK to fund 2 million pounds of food supplies for encircled Ukrainian cities

March 25, 2022

Refugees stay at a temporary accommodation centre in Nikolskoye

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain said on Saturday it would fund 2 million pounds ($2.6 million) worth of vital food supplies for areas of Ukraine which are encircled by Russian forces following a direct request from the Ukrainian government.

Just over a month after Moscow invaded Ukraine in what it describes as a “special military operation”, Russian troops have failed to capture any major Ukrainian cities and have resorted to pounding them with artillery and air strikes.

Worst hit has been the eastern port of Mariupol, a city of 400,000 under siege since the war’s early days. Tens of thousands of people are still believed to be trapped inside with no access to food, power or heating.

Britain said around 25 truckloads of dried food, tinned goods and water will be transported by road and rail from warehouses in Poland and Slovakia to the most at-risk Ukrainian towns and cities.

“The need on the ground in Ukraine is clear, with so many people in encircled areas trapped in basements without access to food or water,” Alice Hooper, the British Foreign Office’s Humanitarian Adviser, said in a statement.

“We are working with partners at the borders to ensure these vital UK supplies reach the places they are needed most as quickly as possible.”

($1 = 0.7568 pounds)

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan. Editing by Andrew MacAskill)

‘This is my land, I stay’: These Ukrainian women are among thousands choosing to fight, not flee

USA Today

‘This is my land, I stay’: These Ukrainian women are among thousands choosing to fight, not flee

Gabriela Miranda, USA TODAY – March 25, 2022

Just last month, Olga Kovalenko moved into her first apartment in Kyiv, Ukraine, and got engaged to her longtime boyfriend. Now she spends mornings cleaning her rifles and pulling people out of bomb-stricken homes.

When Ukraine enacted martial law and banned men 18 to 60 years old from leaving the country after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, Kovalenko knew she’d never forgive herself if she left her homeland. She called her parents and volunteered to join Ukraine’s military forces.

“I wasn’t about to leave all the saving and defending to the men. I may be a woman, but I have no children, and I’m ready to fight,” Kovalenko told USA TODAY. “This is my land, I stay.”

Kovalenko is one of thousands of Ukrainian women refusing to flee as bombs have raged and cities have been bombarded, steadfast in their decision to defend their beloved home and extinguish Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hopes for a swift victory. Women make up about 15% of Ukraine’s army, according to the Ukrainian government.

WHERE ARE THEY GOING?: Millions of refugees are fleeing Ukraine.

Each day Kovalenko said her unit goes to different cities that have been hit by Russia’s relentless attacks. They evaluate the damage, help evacuate civilians and are ready to fend off Russian forces. Fortunately, Kovalenko hasn’t encountered a Russian soldier yet but said she would “do what’s necessary” to win the war.

STUDENTS FLEE UKRAINE: International students studying in Ukraine escape to safety

Kovalenko was born in Kyiv to a Ukrainian mother and Russian father – she said both her parents are proud. Her father even said he stands with Ukraine and is “disappointed” with the invasion.

“I’m different, I’m half of each side in this war, but I choose to do what’s right. I choose to risk my life for my country; it’s what my Ukrainian blood tells me to do,” Kovalenko said.

Alona Bushynska was born in Odessa, Ukraine, and has joined a civilian task force there that provides protection and medical supplies to local communities in the country during the war.
Alona Bushynska was born in Odessa, Ukraine, and has joined a civilian task force there that provides protection and medical supplies to local communities in the country during the war.
Makeup artist now wields weapons

Alona Bushynska, an Odessa native who was once a makeup artist for 17 years, has traded in her brushes for medical supplies and weapons. A few months ago, her biggest worry was scheduling her next client. Today it’s protecting her unit and partners in a civilians task force in Ukraine.

Bushynska said she decided to join the war effort while she watched neighborhoods near Kyiv destroyed by Russian forces. Each morning, the task force wakes up to the sounds of bombs and brings medical supplies to soldiers and civilians.

The task force operates in units of two: One person provides medical assistance while the other is armed and ready to defend as needed. The task force is filled with dozens of women who chose to fight, Bushynska said. Among them: former journalists, paramedics and teachers.

“We’re not professional warriors, we are just civilians who stayed because we want to protect our houses. We want there to be homes and buildings for people to come back to,” Bushynska told USA TODAY. “If I die, I die. But I want to stay.”

Ukraine has a long history of female fighters

Women such as Kovalenko and Bushynska are no different than the thousands of female Ukrainian soldiers who fought in World War I, in the Austro-Hungarian army, and in World War II, in the Red Army, Ukrainian veteran Kateryna Pryimak said.

During Russia’s 2014 invasion of eastern Ukraine, Pryimak enlisted in the Ukrainian army and fought on the front lines to protect the region. Now eight years later, she’s defending her country in a new way – with medical supplies and volunteers.

Kateryna Pryimak is the head of volunteer headquarters for the Women's Veteran Movement organization.
Kateryna Pryimak is the head of volunteer headquarters for the Women’s Veteran Movement organization.

Pryimak is the head of the Women’s Veteran Movement, an organization that provides support for veterans, and has set up a headquarters in Kyiv. Dozens of women, many like Pryimak, are paramedics. They provide food, clothes and medical resources.

“Guns are not the only thing needed. Food, medical attention and even a smile, that’s also what the women who have stayed behind provide to the soldiers and civilians,” Pryimak said.

The Women's Veteran Movement organization is located in Kyiv, Ukraine and offers medical supplies and aid to local military forces in the city.
The Women’s Veteran Movement organization is located in Kyiv, Ukraine and offers medical supplies and aid to local military forces in the city.

She said she knows of thousands of women who have joined the fight against the Russian invasion – and she’s not surprised. Since 2014 and before, women have shown they are just as capable of bravery as their male counterparts, she said.

Bushynska said she will continue to fight with other civilians for as long as it takes. Kovalenko will defend Ukraine until her “last breaths.”

“Men don’t always have to fight and women don’t always have to sit at home and wait,” Kovalenko said. “We are here to help and we’ll stay here until the war is over, until my last breath if needed.”

Texts reveal wife of Supreme Court judge urged 2020 election overturn

BBC News

Texts reveal wife of Supreme Court judge urged 2020 election overturn

March 25, 2022

Virginia Thomas with her husband, Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas
Virginia Thomas with her husband, Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas (left)

The wife of a US Supreme Court judge repeatedly pressed Trump White House staff to overturn the 2020 presidential election, US media has reported.

Virginia Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, reportedly sent 29 text messages to former adviser Mark Meadows, urging him not to concede.

Ms Thomas called Joe Biden’s victory “the greatest heist of our history”.

The texts are among 2,320 messages Mr Meadows provided to a committee investigating the US Capitol riot.

In the text messages, seen by CBS News and The Washington Post, she urged Mr Meadows, who was Donald Trump’s chief of staff, to “make a plan” in a bid to save his presidency.

“Do not concede. It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back”, she wrote on 6 November. It is unclear if Mr Meadows responded.

Ms Thomas also appeared to push QAnon conspiracy theories and urged Mr Meadows to appoint Sidney Powell, a conspiracy theorist and lawyer, to head up Mr Trump’s legal team.

“Sounds like Sidney and her team are getting inundated with evidence of fraud,” Ms Thomas wrote. “Release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down.”

Mr Meadows told Ms Thomas that he intended to “stand firm” and said that he “will fight until there is no fight left”.

The Trump campaign later distanced itself from Ms Powell, after she made dramatic claims of voter fraud, without providing any evidence, at several media events.

Virginia Thomas – who goes by Ginni – is a prominent Republican fundraiser. She was formerly associated with the Tea Party wing of the party, a hard-line conservative movement to which Mr Meadows was also affiliated during his time in the House of Representatives.

She has been married to conservative-leaning Justice Clarence Thomas for 35 years, and has insisted her activist work has no influence on her husband’s work with the Supreme Court.

In 2010, she made headlines for asking Anita Hill to apologise for accusing Mr Thomas of harassment during his confirmation hearings in 1991.

Clarence Thomas is the longest-serving member of the US Supreme Court, having served since 1991, and is currently in hospital with “flu-like” symptoms.

He is considered extremely influential in American law, but for much of his career rarely spoke or asked questions in court until 2016 when he broke a 10-year silence.

Since the Covid pandemic began, however, Mr Thomas has become more vocal and participates in most oral arguments.

In February 2021 the Supreme Court rejected Donald Trump’s challenges to the elections result, however Mr Thomas dissented from the decision, calling it “baffling”.

Wife’s texts leave Justice Thomas in a difficult position

The revelation of Ginni Thomas’s conspiracy-minded text messages have prompted critics on the left to call for Clarence Thomas to be impeached and removed from his lifetime seat on the Supreme Court.

They point to his lone dissent from the Supreme Court decision ordering the release of White House documents to the congressional committee investigating the 6 January Capitol attack as evidence that he was secretly protecting his wife, who was closely involved in efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s election defeat.

Mr Thomas’s defenders counter that he should not be held responsible for the activities of his spouse and, in any regard, there are no ethical rules that apply to high court justices.

The impeachment process for Supreme Court justices is the same as those for US presidents – a majority vote in the House of Representatives and two-thirds to convict and remove in the US Senate. That’s an unreachable bar given the current partisan divide of the latter chamber.

In fact, only one US Supreme Court justice has been impeached by the House in US history. Samuel Chase was accused of political bias and misdeeds in 1804. He was acquitted in the Senate by a comfortable margin.  

Related:

Good Morning America

Ginni Thomas urged White House chief of staff to challenge election results, text messages show

Benjamin Siegel, Katherine Faulders, Joanthan Karl and Devin Dwyer

March 25, 2022

In the fall of 2020, after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the presidential election, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly urged White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to attempt to overturn the election results, according to text messages obtained by congressional investigators.

“Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!” Thomas wrote to Meadows on Nov. 10 after the election was officially called for Biden. “You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”

Sources familiar with the text messages, which were obtained by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, confirmed their authenticity to ABC News. The content of the messages was first reported by The Washington Post and CBS News.

Meadows, who did not respond to all of Thomas’ missives, texted in late November that Trump’s challenge of the election results was “a fight of good versus evil.”

MORE: Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows fails to show for Jan. 6 committee deposition, prompting calls to hold him in contempt

“Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs,” he wrote. “Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it.”

“Thank you!! Needed that! This plus a conversation with my best friend just now … I will try to keep holding on. America is worth it,” Thomas replied.

PHOTO:In this Oct. 21, 2020 file photo White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows talks to reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images, FILE)
PHOTO:In this Oct. 21, 2020 file photo White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows talks to reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images, FILE)

The messages — more than two dozen between Thomas and Meadows in November of 2020, and one from Jan. 10 — were among the thousands of pages of text messages, emails and documents Meadows voluntarily turned over to the committee last year, before he reversed course and decided not to cooperate with the inquiry.

Thomas did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News. A spokesman for the committee declined to comment on the messages or their contents.

MORE: Ginni and Clarence Thomas draw questions about Supreme Court ethics

Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, told the Washington Free Beacon in March that she and her husband don’t talk to each other about their work.

“Like so many married couples, we share many of the same ideals, principles, and aspirations for America,” Thomas told the conservative news outlet. “But we have our own separate careers, and our own ideas and opinions too. Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work.”

PHOTO: Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife and Virginia Thomas while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation, Oct. 21, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images, FILE)
PHOTO: Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife and Virginia Thomas while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation, Oct. 21, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images, FILE)

Thomas said that she attended the “Stop the Steal” rally outside the White House on Jan. 6, but left early because it was cold. She said she had no role in planning the event.

Regarding the attack on the Capitol, Thomas told the Free Beacon she was “disappointed and frustrated that there was violence that happened following a peaceful gathering.”

Ethics experts have raised questions about Thomas’ work on major issues that come before the Supreme Court, on which her husband sits.

In January, the court declined to block the Jan. 6 committee from obtaining Trump White House records over the objection of only one justice: Clarence Thomas.

“There were some eyebrows raised when Justice Thomas was that lone vote,” said Kate Shaw, ABC News Supreme Court analyst and Cardozo Law professor. “But he did not explain himself, so we don’t actually know why he wished to take up the case.”

There are no explicit ethics guidelines that govern the activities of a justice’s spouse, experts say, but there are rules about justices avoiding conflicts of interest. Federal law requires that federal judges recuse themselves from cases whenever their “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

Clarence Thomas was the lone dissent in the Supreme Court’s January order rejecting Trump’s bid to withhold documents from the January 6 panel

Insider

Clarence Thomas was the lone dissent in the Supreme Court’s January order rejecting Trump’s bid to withhold documents from the January 6 panel

Erin Snodgrass – March 24, 2022

clarence thomas
Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas.Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
  • Text messages reportedly show Ginni Thomas urging Mark Meadows to overturn the 2020 US election.
  • The news prompted scrutiny on Clarence Thomas’ lone dissent in a January 6-related case.
  • Ginni Thomas has long participated in partisan politics despite her husband’s role on the court.

In January, the Supreme Court rejected former President Donald Trump’s bid to block the release of some presidential records to the House committee investigating the Capitol riot.

Only one of the nine justices dissented: Clarence Thomas.

At the time, Thomas provided no explanation for why he would have approved Trump’s request — a standard omission when the top court addresses emergency motions.

But Thomas’ objection fell under scrutiny Thursday after several outlets reported that the justice’s wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, sent text messages to Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, urging him to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the aftermath of Trump’s loss to Joe Biden.

The Washington Post reported that in a message from November 6, 2020, Ginni Thomas told Meadows not to concede the election, saying “it takes time for the army who is gathering for his back.” In a message November 10, 2020, Ginni Thomas declared Biden’s win “the greatest Heist of our History.”

In total, Ginni Thomas and Meadows exchanged 29 texts from November 2020 to January 2021, the outlet reported, all of which are now part of the trove of evidence the January 6 panel is investigating.

Meadows and Ginni Thomas didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.

CNN reported Thursday that the committee obtained the texts from Meadows. The former Trump official is believed to have turned over thousands of text messages before he stopped cooperating with the House panel late last year.

Ahead of the Supreme Court’s order on Trump’s White House documents, Meadows filed a supporting brief in favor of blocking the release of documents.

Ginni Thomas has come under scrutiny in recent months over her conservative advocacy given her husband’s position on the nation’s highest court. Earlier this month, she acknowledged attending the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Capitol attack but said she got cold and left before Trump spoke.

She also denied having ties to the organizers of the rally after several news outlets reported that she was connected to January 6 rally organizers and served on the board of a conservative group that promoted overturning the 2020 election results.

Ginni Thomas has long been an active participant in partisan politics. In a recent interview with the Washington Free Beacon, she said she and her husband had their “own separate careers, and our own ideas and opinions too.”

“Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work,” she said.

What Ginni Thomas and Vladimir Putin have in common

The Week

What Ginni Thomas and Vladimir Putin have in common

Joel Mathis, Contributing Writer – March 25, 2022

Ginni Thomas and Vladimir Putin.
Ginni Thomas and Vladimir Putin. Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock

You know what Ginni Thomas and Vladimir Putin have in common? They are both sealed inside information bubbles of their own making, to disastrous ends.

Let’s start with Putin. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has gone badly, but why? Brian Klaas, a politics professor at University College London, says Putin blundered into the war because he didn’t have anyone around to tell him what he believed — that Ukrainians don’t really have their own national identity, that the invasion would be a cakewalk — might not actually be true. Klaas calls this the “dictator trap.”

“It’s what happens when authoritarian leaders make catastrophic short-term errors because they start to believe in the fake realities they’ve constructed around themselves,” Klaas said this week in an interview with Vox.

Maybe that sounds familiar. Echo chambers don’t just happen to dictators. Nowadays, thanks to social media and tailored TV channels, anyone can enjoy their own fake reality.

Take Thomas, a powerful conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The Washington Post reported Thursday on texts she sent to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, around the time of the Jan. 6 insurrection, urging him to help Trump “stand firm” in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Strikingly, the texts suggest Thomas really believed some of the outlandish right-wing conspiracy theories pushed by Trump and his allies. Here’s a text she sent Meadows, quoting one of those theories:

Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.

That obviously never happened. It’s not just wrong, it’s nutty. Ginni Thomas, with connections at the highest levels of government, should’ve known better. But like a lot of people who also attended the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, it seems she bought whatever right-wing websites were selling, no matter how far from reality. Contradictory facts and ideas — the truth that Joe Biden won — were filtered out.

Klaas thinks democracies are less susceptible to the dictator trap. Trump, he notes, obsessively watched CNN and MSNBC to see what people were thinking about him. But I’m not so sure that’s right. After all, it’s not been so long since American news organizations of all stripes — Fox News and the New York Times — coalesced around the shoddy case for a disastrous war. The Thomas texts suggest that even in today’s more-fractured and diverse media environment, it’s pretty easy to avoid disfavored voices and facts. And whether the information bubble is contained to one man or a large group of people, it can still have nasty consquences.

The tendency to believe only the facts we want to believe is a longstanding human foible. Not even society’s elites are immune. You don’t need to be a dictator to fall into the dictator trap.

China and Solomon Islands Draft Secret Security Pact, Raising Alarm in the Pacific

The New York Times

China and Solomon Islands Draft Secret Security Pact, Raising Alarm in the Pacific

Damien Cave – March 25, 2022

Li Keqiang, left, the Chinese premier, and Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare of the Solomon Islands reviewing an honor guard during a ceremony in Beijing in 2019. (AP)

SYDNEY — A leaked document has revealed that China and the Solomon Islands are close to signing a security agreement that could open the door to Chinese troops and naval warships flowing into a Pacific Island nation that played a pivotal role in World War II.

The agreement, kept secret until now, was shared online Thursday night by opponents of the deal and verified as legitimate by the Australian government. Although it is marked as a draft and cites a need for “social order” as a justification for sending Chinese forces, it has set off alarms throughout the Pacific, where concerns about China’s intentions have been growing for years.

“This is deeply problematic for the United States and a real cause of concern for our allies and partners,” Charles Edel, the inaugural Australia chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Friday. “The establishment of a base in the Solomon Islands by a strategic adversary would significantly degrade Australia and New Zealand’s security, increase the chances of local corruption and heighten the chances of resource exploitation.”

It is not clear which side initiated the agreement, but if signed, the deal would give Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare of the Solomon Islands the ability to call on China for protection of his own government while granting China a base of operations between the United States and Australia that could be used to block shipping traffic across the South Pacific.

Five months ago, protesters unhappy with Beijing’s secretive influence attacked the prime minister’s residence, burned businesses in the capital’s Chinatown and left three people dead. Now the worst-case scenario some Solomon Islanders envision would be a breakdown of democracy before or during next year’s election, with more unrest and the threat of China moving in to maintain the status quo.

The leaked document states that “Solomon Islands may, according to its own needs, request China to send police, armed police, military personnel and other law enforcement and armed forces to Solomon Islands to assist in maintaining social order, protecting people’s lives and property.”

It allows China to provide “assistance on other tasks” and requires secrecy, noting, “Neither party shall disclose the cooperation information to a third party.”

Matthew Wale, leader of the opposition party in the Solomon Islands’ parliament, said he feared that the “very general, overarching, vague” agreement could be used for anything.

“The crux of it is that this is all about political survival for the prime minister,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the national security of Solomon Islands.”

For Beijing, the deal could offer its own potential reward. “China may, according to its own needs and with the consent of Solomon Islands, make ship visits to, carry out logistical replenishment in and have stopover and transition in the Solomon Islands,” the draft states.

It also says the Solomons will provide “all necessary facilities.”

The Chinese Embassy in the Solomon Islands did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.

Australia, which has traditionally been the islands’ main security partner — also sending police officers to quell the unrest in November at the government’s request — responded swiftly to the leaked document.

“We would be concerned by any actions that destabilize the security of our region,” Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Members of the Pacific family are best placed to respond to situations affecting Pacific regional security.”

Despite such affirmations, Australia has been losing influence in the Solomons for years. The larger country has a history of condescending to the region, downplaying its concerns about climate change and often describing it as its own “backyard.”

Sogavare has made no secret of his desire to draw China closer. In 2019, soon after he was elected, he announced that the island would end its 36-year diplomatic relationship with Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its own, in order to establish official ties with Beijing. He argued that Beijing would deliver the infrastructure and support that the country needed.

The Sogavare government quickly signed agreements giving Chinese companies the right to build roads and bridges and to reopen one of the country’s gold mines. A Chinese company even tried to lease the entire island of Tulagi.

That deal was eventually deemed illegal, after critics rose up in anger. Residents of Tulagi and Malaita, an island province where local leaders expressed strong opposition to China, have said that bribes are constantly being paid by proxies of Beijing with bags of cash and promises of kickbacks for senior leaders often made during all-expenses-paid trips to China.

The violent protests in November in the Solomon Islands reflected those frustrations. They erupted on the island of Guadalcanal, in the capital, Honiara, where U.S. troops fought a brutal battle against the Japanese starting in 1942. And the clashes were sparked by anger over allegations of China-fueled corruption and a perceived unequal distribution of resources, which has left Malaita less developed despite having the country’s largest population.

Malaita’s premier, Daniel Suidani — who has banned Chinese companies from Malaita while accepting U.S. aid — said that the anger stemmed from “the national government’s leadership.”

“They are provoking the people to do something that is not good,” he said in November.

Wale said he has encouraged the prime minister to negotiate with Malaita, with little success.

“The political discourse over these things is nonexistent,” he said, adding that the proposed agreement with China would make the relationship more volatile.

Anna Powles, a senior lecturer at the Center for Defense and Security Studies at Massey University in New Zealand, said the recent upheaval and continued insecurity point to high levels of stress on the government over the pandemic, the economy and “long-standing concerns about the capturing of the state and political elites by foreign interests.”

“Some of the biggest implications here are about how strategic competition is disrupting local government,” Powles said.

U.S. officials have also become increasingly concerned. In interviews over the past few years, they have often cited the Solomons as a grave example of China’s approach throughout the Pacific, which involves cultivating decision-makers to open the door for Chinese businesses, migration and access to strategic resources and locations — most likely, the Americans believe, for civilian and military uses, at sea, and for satellite communications.

Many Pacific islands, including Kiribati and Fiji, have seen a sharp increase in Chinese diplomats, construction deals and Chinese migration over the past five years. Disputes and tensions have been growing over Beijing’s role in a region that has often either been ignored or been seen as little more than dots on the map for great powers to toy with.

Last month, during a visit to Fiji that focused heavily on competition with China, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States would soon open an embassy in the Solomon Islands after closing one in the 1990s. It is still many months from being operational and on Friday, U.S. officials did not initially respond to requests for comment.

“They certainly can do more and faster,” Wale said. “They just seem to be dragging their feet.”