The contrived Justice Alito flags controversy has exactly one valid use: it shows that the panicked Axis has lost all sense of proportion and self-preservation, that its ethics alarms are deader than Generalissimo Franco, and that between now and November nothing can be ruled out, from violent uprisings to horrified leftist wackos tearing off their clothes, painting themselves mauve and running amuck coast to coast while shouting dirty limericks. Good to know.
Here’s the New York Times, which launched the previous “Bad flag, BAD flag! “scoop (as of this moment, the Times has published nine—NINE!—articles about the flags):
Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs.
This time, it was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.
Three photographs obtained by The New York Times, along with accounts from a half-dozen neighbors and passers-by, show that the Appeal to Heaven flag was aloft at the Alito home on Long Beach Island in July and September of 2023. A Google Street View image from late August also shows the flag.
In two words, so what?
1. I never heard of the flag or saw it before. I wouldn’t kno what it means if I saw it, I’m guessing most people wouldn’t know what it meant.
2. We still don’t know what whoever flew the thing meant when they flew it, it they even knew.
3. I completely reject the principle being pushed by the Left in their Trump derangement-induced hysteria that everything one uses, displays or embraces must be deemed to represent the views of whomever was the most reprehensible person to previously employ it. That’s the “gotcha!” here, and it is desperate and ludicrous. Many of the January 6 rioters carried American flags too: I guess any judge who flies one of those sinister things must be biased in favor of insurrectionists too. The sign of the cross was wielded by the Spanish Inquisition. Pin-striped suits evoke the New York Yankees to me. Back in Arlington, Massachusetts, a generally quiet neighbor suddenly hoisted a large American flag over his door in the fall of 1968. A sudden outburst of patriotism? my father asked him. “No, this flag is how I say ‘Fuck you!’ to those assholes protesting in Chicago,” was his surprising reply.
Little did he realize he had changed the meaning of Old Glory forever.
4. On MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes,’ AOC claimed that the flag was Alito’s sly announcement that he supported an insurrection. In three more words, “Prove it, asshole!” She can’t even prove that Alito has anything to do with the flag, or knew what it signified. All of a sudden I am reading and hearing supposed feminists argue that men in prominent positions are expected to control their wives’ activities and political speech. No, they aren’t.
5. Steve Cohen, one of the more ruthless Democrats in the House, introduced a resolution to censure Justice Alito, claiming the justice’s actions were a violation of judicial propriety. (What actions? Living in a house with a bad flag flying over it? Marrying a historical flag fan? Oh! I know! Not prostrating himself to the totalitarian Left’s ideological mandates! Got it.) “He’s not going to resign, he’s not going to recuse himself, and I don’t think Justice Roberts is going to be able to influence him in that regard,” he said. “So the best we can do is to kind of put a scarlet letter on him.”
Wait, wouldn’t that symbol mean Alito’s engaged in adultery? If he’s cheating on that insurrection-loving wife of his, isn’t that evidence that he’s not an insurrectionist?
6. Whoever flew the flags and for what reason, Alito’s a fool for stepping into this mess, knowing the kind of Machiavellian fanatics are out to undermine the conservative majority on the Court by any means necessary…unless, of course, he wife literally said, “I’m flying that flag, Joe, and if you try to stop me, you’ll be sorry!”
I usually oppose the “tit for tat” response, but in this case I’ll make an exception: I want to see some enterprising investigative reporters track down evidence that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed support for Black Lives Matter since 2020, or at least someone in her household did, or someone she expressed approval of, or something. I would take an embrace of that Marxist, racist organization powerful evidence of bias against whites, law enforcement and the United States itself…but come to think of it, Justice Jackson might just say, “No, I just think black lives matter.”
And maybe Justice Alito was appealing to heaven to stop this hyper-partisan nonsense.
Ethics Alarms 
I disagree with the assessment that Alito is a fool for stepping into this mess. The mess is created by the left and that mess moves so no matter what Alito or Thomas does except for prostrating themselves on the alter of leftist thought can they avoid becoming the star in their latest propaganda narrative.
Select the target, isolate him or her and then vilify that person is their modus-operandi and both Alito and Thomas have been selected as targets.
Chris, poking the bear is always foolish. The Court needs to be above reproach right now, and the fact that there are bad faith actors looking for opportunities to smear conservative justices is no reason to give the mob sticks to beat them with.
You can’t compare Alito’s fake scandal to Thomas’s. As I wrote at the times, he was reckless, arrogant and, frankly, irresponsible and selfish. The ethics complaints about his various side-benefits from conservative billionaires are completely valid.
Poking the bear requires intent. That is not proven in Alito’s case. I will not disagree that Thomas’ past decisions gave the opposition ammunition to lodge ethics complaints. I could have left out the Thomas reference entirely to make my point. Nonetheless, it does not matter whether they were Alito, Thomas, or some other conservative the Alinsky tactic to destroy the opposition is at work by the Left. That was my entire point.
If the court needs to be above reproach then the media must examine every act of the liberal justices as they do with the conservative ones. Having only one side under the microscope tends to create an imbalance of power.
I just saw a podcast with Dan Pfiefer who was talking about adding justices to the Supreme Court. Why exactly would anyone want to add justices under any given Congress unless it was designed to put justices on the bench who would decide issues based on ideology and not law. I see little difference between deciding cases along ideological grounds and the issues surrounding Thomas.
I would expect Thomas to recuse if a case before the court involved anyone who had provided something of value to him in the past. I don’t believe that situation has yet presented itself.
I have come to the conclusion that our courts are hopelessly mired in political ideology. The two judges in New York are classic examples. Politics has cast a dark cloud over American jurisprudence and polluted it. Conservatives are not without blame but it is the Left that doing everything in its power to destroy the integrity of and belief in America’s institutions.
But Chris, if Alito is intelligent and wise enough to be a SCOTUS Justice, he should be intelligent and wise enough to know that gratuitous engagement in activities guaranteed to place himself and the Court on the defensive is irresponsible regardless of the ultimate legitimacy of the criticism triggered.
“…horrified leftist wackos tearing off their clothes, painting themselves mauve…”
C’mon, Jack, that would never happen. Mauve is soooooo 1990s; amethyst, maybe… even periwinkle, but certainly not mauve.
Nice… Completely derailed my thoughts and made me giggle as I was scrolling through the comments. 🙂
I heard that AOC upon seeing the inverted US flag said: An upside down flag. I wonder where I can buy one of those?
Reminds me of the joke about AOC getting fired from the M&M factory for throwing out all of the candies with a W.
I’ve heard of the Pine Tree flag before 2020. Saw it in the background of a video, though I can’t recall the video now. It’s a flotilla flag from the Revolutionary War, used by ships organized in New England. Massachusetts used it as their naval militia ensign. Justice Alito or whoever flew it most likely just likes historical American flags.
“Justice Alito or whoever flew it most likely just likes historical American flags.“
That seemed a likely possibility to me, too. God help him if he flies a Gadsden or Betsy Ross, though.
The Appeal to Heaven flag was used in the opening credits of the HBO series “John Adams”.
Oooo! Good catch!
”So the best we can do is to kind of put a scarlet letter on him.”
looks like someone may have missed the point of that book.
-Jut
You don’t think he actually has read the book, do you? The Cliff Notes, maybe…
It was required reading for me in high school and I may have read it in college and even once in my spare time.
But, that’s just me.
-Jut