Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

How stupid are these people?

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

So many bastards, so little time.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Nothing worth doing is easy.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / GOP Venality Open Thread: ‘Just Us’ Thomas Is Attracting All the Wrong Attention

GOP Venality Open Thread: ‘Just Us’ Thomas Is Attracting All the Wrong Attention

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'Just Us' Thomas and His Very Special, Deluxe RV - STOCKPILE

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)

BettyC already covered the news about Clarence & Ginni’s extravagant vacations, but wait, there’s more!…

Justice Clarence Thomas met the recreational vehicle of his dreams in Phoenix, on a November Friday in 1999.

With some time to kill before an event that night, he headed to a dealership just west of the airport. There sat a used Prevost Le Mirage XL Marathon, eight years old and 40 feet long, with orange flames licking down the sides. In the words of one of his biographers, “he kicked the tires and climbed aboard,” then quickly negotiated a handshake deal. A few weeks later, Justice Thomas drove his new motor coach off the lot and into his everyman, up-by-the-bootstraps self-mythology.

There he is behind the wheel during a rare 2007 interview with “60 Minutes,” talking about how the steel-clad converted bus allows him to escape the “meanness that you see in Washington.” He regularly slips into his speeches his love of driving it through the American heartland — “the part we fly over.” And in a documentary financed by conservative admirers, Justice Thomas, who was born into poverty in Georgia, waxes rhapsodic about the familiarity of spending time with the regular folks he meets along the way in R.V. parks and Walmart parking lots.

“I don’t have any problem with going to Europe, but I prefer the United States, and I prefer seeing the regular parts of the United States,” he told the filmmakers, adding: “There’s something normal to me about it. I come from regular stock, and I prefer being around that.”…

Happy to report that NYMag is keeping their helpful list up to date, if you want a scorecard:

Call me a dreamer, but it seems as though the Permanent ‘Conservative’ Government Party may be leaning towards using Thomas as a scapegoat — a blatantly corrupt sacrifice for us Democrats and other honest types to purge, in order to protect the more activist (and younger) SC(R)OTUS judges. They’ve engineered a majority without him, and probably figure it’ll be easier to McConnell an eight-member court now than it would be during a (Murphy willing) second President Biden term. Many people are saying…

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  3. 3.

    Suzanne

    “I come from regular stock, and I prefer being around that.”

    There’s so much to unpack here. WTF.
    Take your luxury RV to an Ohio diner and get off the Court.
    Hang out with “regular stock”.

  5. 5.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Suzanne: ​“I come from regular stock, and I prefer being around that.”

    Complete and utter bullshit. Private planes, private clubs, billionaire “buddies.” Regular stock, my pink ass.

  6. 6.

    Jeffro

    Fuck it, this is just straight-up corruption – anyone and everyone can see that.

    Thomas will never resign, and the RWNJ Noise Machine will howl, but here’s hoping Dem candidates make “cleaning house” or “restoring ethics” or some damn phrase part of their usual speeches this year and next.

    (just not “drain the swamp”, FSM please no)

  9. 9.

    Captain C

    Most people who “come from common stock” don’t seem to feel the need to use it as a talking point.

    (edited for spelling ‘coz I’m at a metal show)

  10. 10.

    Trivia Man

    My dream is that Ginny’s clear, obvious, and outrageous involvement in January 6 is Clarence’s undoing. Recusal, divorce, something I can’t imagine… if (when) TIFG gets it to the Supremes it would be delicious if Clarence is the undoing of it all.

  11. 11.

    RobertDSC-iPhone 8

    One way to get these cretins back is to deny them any honors after death. No lying in state in the Rotunda, no statuary, not even lowering the flag to half staff.

    They don’t deserve any of it.

    The same goes for TIFG. When he dies, he gets none of the usual ceremonies. Not a single penny should go to any of them after they die.

  17. 17.

    Sure Lurkalot

    I don’t know if the drip, drip, drip of the reporting that conservative SC justices are corrupt is intended, but please more and more and more.

    And please, serve up Leonard Leo.

  19. 19.

    matt

    the word corruption is a good one for this sort of scene, because it evokes the stench of corpses decaying.

  22. 22.

    JaySinWA

    @Sure Lurkalot: Propublica on PBS tonight indicated that the stuff they found on other justices was reported by them. Thomas stands alone in both the number and the lack of reporting.

    ETA they are open to any info on unreported gifts to the other justices, they just haven’t uncovered any.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    (grasping a soda can, knocks on door of the neighboring RV at Walmart)

    “Howdy, neighbor. Can you spare a lock of pubic hair?”

    //

  29. 29.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Sure Lurkalot: I heard one of the reporters interviewed today and someone asked him how he got this story and he said, trips like these aren’t just billionaires and their guests, there’s support staff, bartenders, fishing guides…

    The specificity of that last one struck me.

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    Clarence Thomas’ writings seem so bitter

    One wonders whether he has ever come to realize that he was/is one of those things he hates most — an Affirmative Action hire. Maybe he has, and that’s why he’s so bitter.

    [For the youngsters: the primary — perhaps only — reason he was nominated to SCOTUS was because GHWB and his people (fuck ’em) wanted a reactionary Black man to replace Thurgood Marshall.]

  32. 32.

    different-church-lady

    Clarence Thomas’ writings seem so bitter for someone who has so many friends

    He doesn’t have friends. He has sponsors.

  33. 33.

    different-church-lady

    @Suzanne: Oh. Yeah. I have people paying for everything in my life all the time, despite my six-figure salary. It’s just part of being a normal, common person.

  34. 34.

    BruceFromOhio

    MrsFromOhio and I covered this during drive-time today. We concluded that a) the Senate won’t do anything, b) there’s more shit-show to come, and c) other than a fatal stroke or dying of old age, the only way Thomas goes is Roberts pushes him to resign.

    It also reinforces the Dem strategy of “We’re competent, capable, and not corrupt.”

  35. 35.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Trollhattan: ​ 

    Absolute brilliant counter and excellent finish from Spain. That shut the Dutch up, Beerensteyn was talking shit about the US and got shut down.

  37. 37.

    HumboldtBlue

    @piratedan: ​ 

    I agree, and I liked seeing that Spanish flair win out, but the Dutch are always tough. My vitriol was localized to this game, I admire Dutch football in general.

  45. 45.

    kalakal

    @RobertDSC-iPhone 8:

    The same goes for TIFG. When he dies, he gets none of the usual ceremonies. Not a single penny should go to any of them after they die.

    I think TFIG should get a memorial.

    The Donald J Trump National Public Toilet. The Bigliest and Best!

    With his name all over it. I want the bastard to go to his grave knowing that for decades to come, people will see his name and think of him while they…

  47. 47.

    Shalimar

    @BruceFromOhio: The only power Roberts has over Thomas is to never give him any decisions to write when both are in the majority.  Which I don’t think Thomas gives a damn about.

  48. 48.

    NotMax

    Maui update:

    As of today:

    There are 53 deaths
    270 structures impacted/destroyed
    3 active fires:
    Lahaina 80% contained,
    Pūlehu/Kīhei 70% contained; and
    Kula – no containment information
    Mass visitor/resident evacuations out of West Maui continue
    Still no power in West Maui – approximately 12,400 customers remain offline
    1350 people at five shelters
    1,400 people stayed overnight at Kahului Airport
    14,000 departed Maui on Wednesday; Another 14,500 expected to leave today
    Source

  49. 49.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    Thanks for the update. I live in Southern California, where we know how devastating brush fires can be, but even so, what is happening in Hawaii looks absolutely horrifying.

    I heard an interview with a resident who noted that earlier homeless people were scurrying towards the beach to try to find some safety.

    Hang in there. It’s good to see the success of the containment efforts.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    @Brachiator

    Coast Guard successfully rescued people who had leapt into the ocean and swum out to sea for safety because boats in the harbor were ablaze, and burned down to the waterline.

  53. 53.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @HumboldtBlue: I was never a regular King of the Hill watcher but there was this one episode I caught where his son Bobby goes on the road with Christian rock band and when Hank tracks him down to bring him home he sums up Christian rock perfectly by telling the lead singer of the band “Don’t you understand? You’re not making Jesus cooler, you’re just making rock and roll worse!”

  54. 54.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @different-church-lady: Yeah this is the thing. I draw a paycheck from the federal government and live in the DC area. I’m like if it’s so commonplace, where are my billionaire friends? Why don’t I have a similar group of rich people giving me RVs, private plane rides and yacht cruises etc.?

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