Supreme Court Ethics & Even Worms Get The Munchies

April 24, 2023

How Did It End Up Like This? It Was Only A Gift, It Was Only A Gift!

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is still under fire for the multiple undisclosed gifts he’s taken from billionaire Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin has been hounding Thomas in the press and through official channels, trying to initiate an investigation into Thomas’ financial connections, though he doesn’t expect his efforts to actually bring down the justice.

“Why this Supreme Court, these nine justices, believe they are exempt from the basic standards of disclosure, I cannot explain. And I think [the] chief justice should appear before our committee and explain something or explain the changes that he’s going to make,” said Durbin in a Sunday interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press.” When asked why he didn’t call on Thomas himself to appear before the hearing, Durbin stated, “I think I know what would happen to that invitation. It would be ignored.”

Other Democratic lawmakers have also joined in on questioning the ethics of Thomas’ lack of transparency around the gifts he receives. “There is at least reasonable cause to believe that Justice Thomas intentionally disregarded the disclosure requirement to report the sale of his interest in the Savannah properties in an attempt to hide the extent of his financial relationship with Crow,” read a joint statement from Democratic legislators including Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Hank Johnson. Their letter was also met with silence from Chief Justice Roberts.

Durbin has also asked Chief Justice Roberts to testify in an upcoming hearing on Supreme Court ethics, though Roberts has not responded to the request. Justice Thomas has also not released a statement regarding a $44,000 real estate transaction that he failed to disclose despite a legal obligation for justices to report all their financial transactions. “The public has every right to know when top officials are buying and selling property,” said one Supreme Court transparency activist.

Some Good News

A Prisoner In Punjab

On Saturday, Indian police announced the arrest of Amritpal Singh, a Sikh separatist leader who’d been leading authorities on a wild goose chase for months. Singh is a leader of the Waris De Punjab group, which seeks to establish a separate sovereign state named Khalistan for Sikhs, an Indian minority religious group.
After the search began on March 18, Singh was caught in Moga, Punjab, a northwestern Indian state home to much of the country’s Sikh population. He’s set to be moved to a high-security jail in Assam, an eastern Indian state.
Currently, Singh is accused of attempted murder, obstruction of law enforcement, and creating “disharmony” in society. As part of the manhunt, Indian authorities blocked internet access for roughly 27 million people living in Punjab.

Sayonara, Sudan

As fighting continues in Sudan between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and a paramilitary group named the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), outside states have begun successfully evacuating their citizens after initial evacuation efforts were interrupted by continuous fighting.
“The evacuation of all missions whose countries made such a request is expected to begin within the coming hours, as the United States, the UK, France, and China will evacuate their diplomats and nationals by air by military transport aircraft belonging to their respective armed forces from Khartoum and this is expected to begin immediately,” said the SAF in a statement on Sunday.
Saudi Arabia was the first country to evacuate its citizens, with the U.S. extricating its own people later that same day. So far, the Sudan conflict has taken the lives of roughly 420 people and injured 3,700 more, according to the World Health Organization, and tens of thousands have fled the country to neighboring nations, including some 20,000 people who have escaped to Chad.

Additional World News

“What greater bliss than to look back on days spent in usefulness, in doing good to those around us.” – Dorothea Dix

Trump Takes The Lead

Many – including us here at the Daily Pnut – thought that former President Trump’s indictment was a nail in the coffin of his presidential campaign, but it seems that isn’t the case. A new national NBC News poll found that nearly 70% of Republican primary voters say they stand behind Trump and aren’t concerned about his ability to secure the presidency once again.
The question was phrased, “Which statement comes closer to your view on the investigations into Donald Trump and the Republican nomination for president?” Option one, which garnered 68% of the votes, read, “They are a politically motivated attempt to stop Trump. No other candidate is like him, we must support him.” Option two, with 26% of the votes, read, “It is important to nominate a candidate who will not be distracted and can beat Joe Biden.”
Governor Ron DeSantis, whom many had looked to as the savior to keep Trump off the ballot, is trailing by double-digits behind the former president. On top of that, many Americans aren’t exactly thrilled about President Biden, 80, running again, but he’s expected to launch his reelection campaign in the coming weeks. Overall, it looks like we can expect a repeat of the 2020 election – though, hopefully, without the insurrection.

Aborted Anti-Abortion Effort

On Friday, the ultra-conservative Supreme Court broke with tradition and blocked restrictions on mifepristone, and Republicans are not thrilled with the ruling. On Sunday, Senator Lindsey Graham appeared on CNN and was interviewed by Dana Bash, where he got incredibly…flustered by her line of questioning.
Last September, Graham proposed a national 15-week abortion ban only a month after insisting it was an issue for states to decide, and Bash attempted to push him on his uncertain position. Graham (rather aggressively) accused Bash, and the media in general, of covering for people who want “barbaric” late-term abortions that are only allowed in places like China and North Korea.
Many Republicans are unsure how to move forward on abortion, with some concerned that it cost the party votes in the midterms. Meanwhile, Republican states keep passing more and more restrictive laws, like Florida’s six-week abortion ban. The Supreme Court’s ruling means that access to mifepristone will remain unchanged at least into next year.

Additional USA News

Hey Bro, You Gonna Finish That Compost?

According to a study published in the journal Current Biology on April 20, worms get the munchies too. While humans getting hungry after taking a few hits from the joint is a well-known phenomenon, the study shows how cannabis interacts with biological mechanisms that affect appetite more broadly.
Researchers gave the invertebrates the munchies by dunking them in anandamide, a cannabinoid – a type of chemical found in weed that can affect appetite by binding to proteins in the brain and throughout the body. While worms normally gravitate toward higher-calorie foods, the cannabinoid-soaked worms sought out high-calorie foods even more than normal, and stayed near the food for longer than normal.
The study’s authors say that the worms’ sensitivity to the cannabinoids “sets the stage for rapid and inexpensive screening for drugs that target a wide variety of proteins involved in cannabinoid signalling and metabolism, with profound implications for human health.”

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