Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Fight them, without becoming them!

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

In after Baud. Damn.

“Alexa, change the president.”

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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

Accountability, motherfuckers.

People are weird.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / *Very* Chill Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: John Oliver Makes ‘Justice’ Thomas An Offer

*Very* Chill Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: John Oliver Makes ‘Justice’ Thomas An Offer

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Per Deadline, “John Oliver Returns To HBO & Offers To Pay Clarence Thomas $1M A Year To “Get The F*** Off The Supreme Court””:

… On the Season 11 premiere of the late-night talk show, Oliver discussed the U.S. Supreme Court, saying that it’s reached “a breaking point,” citing several ways it could be fixed like “enforceable ethics codes, to term limits, to potentially expanding the court.”

Oliver had previously noted that Thomas had not recused himself from taking on cases where there was a conflict of interest or where he may have received gifts from special interest groups.

“If we’re going to keep the bar of accountability this low, perhaps it’s time to exploit that low bar the same way billionaires have successfully done for decades,” Oliver said.

He continued, “Clarance Thomas is arguably the most consequential Justice on the court right now and he’s never really seemed to like the job. He said, ‘It’s not worth doing for the grief.’ So what if he can keep the luxury perks he clearly enjoys without having to endure all of that grief.”

Oliver proceeded to make Thomas “a special offer,” which included “one million dollars a year for the rest of your life if you simply agree to leave the Supreme Court immediately and never come back.”…

Oliver noted that he has talked to legal experts who assured him that he wasn’t breaking any laws and said “HBO is not putting up the money for this. I am personally on the hook. You can make me really regret this. I could be doing standup tours to pay for your retirement for years.”

“This offer is not forever,” Oliver continued. “You have exactly 30 days from midnight tonight to make your resignation effective.”

To sway Thomas to sign the contract, Oliver also offered him a brand new top-of-the-line motorcoach worth $2.4 million, which includes a full bedroom with a king-size bed, one and a half baths, a fireplace, four TVs, a washer/dryer, and a residential-size fridge…

This is *not* a good video (I’ll replace it when Last Week Tonight posts it properly), but the Clarence Thomas segment starts at the 12.30min mark, and The Offer at the 30min mark:

Reader Interactions

77Comments

  1. 1.

    Shalimar

    I have a feeling that Clarence Thomas really enjoys hanging out with billionaires.  It makes him feel extra-elite, and the value of that feeling of superiority is way above $1 million a year to him.

  3. 3.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Shalimar: It’s sad how easily one can mistake oneself for one of the Masters of the Universe, rather than just their tool. Which is all Mr. Thomas is, at the moment, based on the evidence before us.

  7. 7.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: And the fact that he’d spend a lot of that $ on bodyguards to protect himself from the MAGAts that would be gunning for the traitor lessens the attraction too. But well done job by Oliver in making explicit how easily purchased Thomas is.

  8. 8.

    Rusty

    He likes the money, but he really loves the power and putting it to everyone he doesn’t like.  He is a giant box of resentment on two legs, and the Supreme Court lets him use those legs to kick everyone he doesn’t like.  He isn’t giving that up for anything.  He may talk about leaving the court, but I wouldn’t be remotely shocked if he leaves feet first.  Pissing off all the people he hates on a mass scale is one hell of a drug.  Even better he gets accolades from the right for doing it.  Thomas ain’t going anywhere.

  9. 9.

    🐾BillinGlendaleCA

    Open thread…all righty then…

    As you all know, I work at the Home of the Orange Apron.  We have music that plays on our audio system, so I get the pleasure of listening to it 8 hours a day.  When I first started and for about the first 6 months, it was 70’s music.  This was OK since I’m old and it was pretty much what I heard in high school.  Then they switched to what I call the screeching girls and emo boys station, yuck.  About a month ago, it was switched for a week or so to late 70’s and early 80’s stuff.  One song that got a good deal of airplay was “Do Ya” by ELO.  My coworker Ed, the actor, was with me at the desk as said the music was OK, except he was tired of hearing “Do Ya” by Ace Frehley.  I informed Ed, who is about 18 years my junior that “Do Ya” was by ELO or possibly “The Move”, but not ol’ Ace.  As of Saturday, they switched from the screeching girls and emo boys station back to 70’s music.  Ed was off today, he has Sundays scheduled off for religious reasons, NFL fan.  I walk into the store and what to I hear on the sound system, “Back in the New York Groove”.  I was laughing as I clocked in.

    That concludes today’s edition of Adventures at the Home of the Orange Apron.

  15. 15.

    Princess

    The idea of making again Willis an issue when Clarence Thomas exists. The very issue.

    And don’t kid yourselves. He likes the money a whole lot too. He thinks he deserves it.

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    @Paul in KY:  And may it be soon.

    Further, is Ginni off the hook for her sedition activities?  I don’t think so; I think DOJ and Jack Smith are still rolling up the lieutenants.

    May they get to her before long, too.

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    Thank you for posting this.  I never watch John Oliver (or much “TV” at all), and probably should.

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    Thomas may be staying on the court just so he has a suitable bargaining chip (resignation under what terms) when they finally get to Whacko Sedition Spouse.

  23. 23.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Thomas is a greedy bastard, but he has a giant chip on his shoulder about supposedly being the black man who earned his success and not lazy like the others.  The ego and cruelty halves of that have both been noted above.  Mere money doesn’t satisfy that insecurity complex.  On the other hand, it’s a lot of money.

    EDIT – @Elizabelle:

    is Ginni off the hook for her sedition activities?

    If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last four years, it’s that you won’t know until the jaws of the trap are ready to close.  Shit, Trump’s biggest advantage right now is that there are so many traps closing on him they’re having to line up and are getting in each other’s way.

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Trump’s biggest advantage right now is that there are so many traps closing on him they’re having to line up and are getting in each other’s way.

    And we are here for it!

    Happy Presidents’ Day, jackals.

    The good presidents.

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    @BillinGlendaleCA

    No music (thankfully) inside the Home Depot here.

    At one point I moonlighted in a second job here at a 24-hour cafe to pick up some extra scratch. All by my lonesome, 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift. With music piped in on a loop from an office on the second floor i did not have entry to. Managed to tune it out; all I remember is it included Lennon’s Imagine.

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    @NotMax:  Um, that sounds dangerous.  Working all by your lonesome in a cash business in the middle of the night.  Hawaii, yes.  But …

  27. 27.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Frankensteinbeck:
     

    If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last four years, it’s that you won’t know until the jaws of the trap are ready to close.

    If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last 4 decades is that people like her on the right are never held accountable for their actions. Maybe this *one* time I’ll be wrong but wouldn’t bet money on it.

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    @Elizabelle

    Never had a problem nor felt the least bit threatened.

    Biggest shock was one night finding someone had left a $100 bill in the tip jar.
    ;)

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    Yeah, I’m not taking that bet either.

    On the other hand, I’m sure AG Garland is working assiduously to something something mumble something.

    ETA: And just to piss off some jackals: “But SFAW, you just don’t understand how complex and long the process is to prosecute the lower level in order to get to the upper level.” Yeah, whatever.

  31. 31.

    RSA

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA:  I don’t have any workplace music stories, but I do get to hear someone’s playlist when I’m at the local gym. Some days it’s the Scorpions, Guns and Roses, Van Halen with Sammy Hagar—lots of screaming. Other days it’s some modern heavy metal subgenre. Boomer rock is a relief.

    I just put in my ear buds and I’m good.

  38. 38.

    SFAW

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Whatever. He’s had a more “target-rich environment” than anyone in the past 60 years.

    Look, I’m happy that Jack Smith is doing his job, and doing it well — not that I think TFG will ever suffer any meaningful consequences — but it’s not clear to me that Garland’s (apparent) plodding aided that effort appreciably. [No, I don’t consider Garland taking a year-and-a-half-plus to appoint Smith to be “aid[ing] that effort appreciably.” But that’s because I’m an asshole.]

  40. 40.

    Suzanne

    @Matt McIrvin:

    There’s a part of me that still doesn’t believe Trump will ever really have to pay a dime to anyone. Has E. Jean Carroll actually seen any money yet? 

    That’s the part of you that engages in pattern recognition.

    It’s so exhausting. I mean, ask anyone with a credit card balance, or a car payment, or a payday loan. They can find you. And yet, these people, these criminals…. it stretches on and on and on. While they eat nice dinners and live in nice homes and play golf.

  41. 41.

    SFAW

    @Suzanne:

    While they eat nice dinners

    Sorry, but the thought of TFG eating a hockey-puck-like steak with ketchup …

    Yes, I know there are RWMFs who actually eat nice food.

  42. 42.

    Sanjeevs

    @Frankensteinbeck: Garland prosecuted the militia members and tourists involved in J6. GOP leadership and financiers let off Scott free other than Trump.

    It’s like going after the mob associates while the made men are untouchable

  43. 43.

    Ksmiami

    @SFAW: yep. Merrick’s so called justice department is slow walking us into fascism. He’s been a terrible AG for this moment in history.

  46. 46.

    kalakal

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA:

    Worked in a pub in England while I was a student in the early 80s. There was a jukebox… punters kept playing the same songs constantly

    Songs I wish never to hear again Imagine, Freebird, Don’t you want me, and a special mention for Laughing Len Cohen and Suzanne

  47. 47.

    Suzanne

    @Ksmiami: So, in my professional life, I have much experience with (and personally love) Lean as a tool for planning workflow. In my job, I am always dealing with conditions of not having enough…. be that money, time, person power, etc. One of the things it encourages you to recognize is the risk of waiting, and the realization that the time you spend going over and over and over, trying to gain just a little bit more of something (information, certainty, consensus)….. probably exceeds the cost of just making a damn choice and moving on.

    That’s what I feel like happened here.

  49. 49.

    hueyplong

    @Sanjeevs: People were complaining in exactly the opposite manner when “the little guys” were being prosecuted for Jan 6 and Trump was seemingly untouchable.

    As for the extra slow pace of prosecutions, the one set of people who rarely complain about that here are posters who are lawyers.  Briefing response times that send WaterGirl to the edge of insanity are much shorter than any we who are/have been litigators have ever experienced in civil litigation, as are the “delays” before rulings.

    I share everyone’s impatience to see bad actors get theirs, but I get why these things are maddeningly slow.

  50. 50.

    Lyrebird

    @Princess: ​
     

    The idea of making again Willis an issue when Clarence Thomas exists. The very issue.

    So true.
    Was thinking the same exact thing last night!

  52. 52.

    SFAW

    @Suzanne:

    One of the things it encourages you to recognize is the risk of waiting, and the realization that the time you spend going over and over and over, trying to gain just a little bit more of something (information, certainty, consensus)….. probably exceeds the cost of just making a damn choice and moving on.

    Co-sign.

    During part of my engineering career, I tended to strive for making the “perfect” decision. I eventually realized that making a decision with 80 percent confidence, rather than getting to 95-plus, allowed you to move on. Plus, if I made an error, I could correct it more quickly than if I had dithered.

    “The perfect is the enemy of the good-enough” (not “the good,” as people often say) became my mantra, although I wish I had realized that earlier in life.

  53. 53.

    JAFD

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA: ​
     A couple of decades ago, I was spending the holidays at the Home of the Blue-Light Special. Evening, Saturday between Xmas and New Years. Closing time. Registers ringing closing bells, PA “Deptrtment managers will check that all customers have left..”

    And then the music played
    – you guessed it –
    Madonna singing “Material Girl”.
    Everybody cheered.

  54. 54.

    hueyplong

    @Sanjeevs: That’s true.  We can’t know whether he was pushing because he was worried that they wouldn’t do it at all, and remember that part of the delay was the sabotage of GOPers in the FBI.  This is something that is difficult to manage while keeping the whole thing together.  The most generous reading of Comey’s actions is that he was dealing with similar stuff, though obviously much more sympathetic to the bad side.  It still amazes me that Comey was almost immediately fired by Trump for his trouble and literally no GOPer boot lickers drew any conclusions from that other than “must lick harder.”

  55. 55.

    Suzanne

    @hueyplong:

    As for the extra slow pace of prosecutions, the one set of people who rarely complain about that here are posters who are lawyers.  Briefing response times that send WaterGirl to the edge of insanity are much shorter than any we who are/have been litigators have ever experienced in civil litigation, as are the “delays” before rulings. 

    But also, to be fair, this is a whole arena of life that is notorious for moving incredibly slowly. Yes, I know there are important reasons for that.

    But there’s also a real cost to that. One cost being that it takes so damn long that reasonable people — like those of us who have to move faster, even when we might not want to — lose confidence in that system to deliver meaningful results, to right wrongs.

  56. 56.

    Sanjeevs

    @hueyplong: Schiff overtly criticized the DoJ

    They have been very slow, though, on the much more comprehensive, and I believe, even more significant investigation of January 6,” the California Democrat said here at the Texas Tribune Festival.
    Schiff criticized the DOJ’s overall strategy, saying he believes it was a mistake for the department to start its investigation from the ground up – with those who broke into the Capitol – because “that works when you have one plot, one conspiracy. It doesn’t work when there are multiple lines of effort to overturn an election, multiple plots, that may be all part of the same whole, but nonetheless each operating independently.”
    They have been very slow, though, on the much more comprehensive, and I believe, even more significant investigation of January 6,” the California Democrat said here at the Texas Tribune Festival.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/24/politics/january-6-doj-investigation-adam-schiff/index.html

    After the Hur fiasco it’s clear Garland isn’t on our side.

  57. 57.

    hueyplong

    Your conclusion doesn’t match any part of Schiff’s criticisms.

    But it does touch on something Schiff doesn’t criticize, but should.  It’s absurd that there is some sort of unbreakable, unwritten rule that all independent prosecutors must be Republicans, the currently sole source of reliably bad faith actors in this country.  I agree that the AG should have taken the PR hit and declined to allow Hur to go forward or to continue once it was obvious he was acting as an extension of the Trump campaign.

  59. 59.

    Shalimar

    @SFAW: We now have a good idea what Garland was doing at every stage before Smith was appointed, and it only makes him look worse.  I am glad there is a special prosecutor, it should have happened in February of 2021, and Garland prioritizing the 1/6 nobodies over the organizers was horrible.

    That said, Smith has done fine since it became his case, as far as I can see.  His choice to prosecute Trump alone so far is defensible if he goes back and files indictments against everyone else after the Trump trial is settled.  We will see if that happens.

    Also, prioritizing the nobodies has had a huge effect on the ability to rally nobodies together.  They’re all too terrified to show up right now.  False flags and FBI plants and all of that.

  60. 60.

    Lyrebird

    @TBone: Oh so true.

    I actually have the DKos copy of her letter bookmarked.  The seemingly bland recommendation to not commit crimes in Fulton County…  the whole letter is a thing of beauty.

    Thanks for reminding me!

    Onward…

  61. 61.

    Paul in KY

    @Elizabelle: I sure hope so. Would be so so great to have POTUS re-elected. Thomas strokes out due to that (or Ginni goes complete nutwad and murder/suicides them both) and then Pres. Biden puts Ms. Willis on the court. Justice Marshall would finally rest easy.

  63. 63.

    SFAW

    @Paul in KY:
    Yes, another aphorism I used. Addresses a different issue — the unwillingness of engineers (et al.) to use something that already exists and works well (or can work well with a few tweaks), vs. showing their worth by designing something new — but still valuable.​

  65. 65.

    StringOnAStick

    @SFAW: Good enough is an important concept and saves so much spinning around and around.  I worked as a hydrogeologist in a surface water civil engineering firm, and after working for the USGS all through undergrad and grad school, good enough was important to my sanity and ability to not have to work too many uncompensated hours.  Still worked plenty of those though!

    My 92 year old father is the kind of engineer where “good enough” is a sin and sign of low character, and his ability to over engineer and spend way too many hours doing it is legendary.  It’s a good thing he formed his own one man company before the people underneath him fragged him for expecting them to be fellow workaholics with no family life or days off.  I worked a summer at his corporate job company before college and that’s when I realised that his approach to life was not normal.

  66. 66.

    SFAW

    @StringOnAStick:

    Yeah, I wish I had latched onto the concept a lot sooner than I did, it would have saved me a ton of (probably) fruitless hours.

    “Six sigma” is a great concept for manufacturing widgets etc., but trying to reach the same fault/error rate vis-a-vis your decisions is not so great.

  68. 68.

    scav

    @StringOnAStick:  Satisficing was the single most useful thing that stuck after my years wrestling with linear programming.  P, NP, NP complete, polynomial whatever, all that were wobbly as hell but problem definition and satisficing heuristics?  Instantly tattooed on the brain. Huzzah Herbert Simon!

  69. 69.

    Ruckus

    @Suzanne:

    That also involves the law of diminishing returns. At some point, especially when the job involves a downfall for someone, a point at which no matter what you do or how hard you work on it, it’s just not worth the effort. Having, in a prior segment of my life, been involved in working with a lot of humans who had differing ideas and rewards of the work involved, seen that some will do anything, to get ahead, and some place restraints upon themselves that hinder them and seldom get ahead. I call it humanity but then that’s just me.

  70. 70.

    dirge

    @Suzanne: But there’s also a real cost to that. One cost being that it takes so damn long that reasonable people — like those of us who have to move faster, even when we might not want to — lose confidence in that system to deliver meaningful results, to right wrongs.

    I’ve just concluded some litigation over a stupid, trivial, and extremely urgent matter, with an obvious and inevitable outcome in my favor.  It’s taken two years and tons of money.  My attorneys assure me this is normal, if opposition is committed to delay.  I believe them.  Something can be normal, absurd, and intolerable all at the same time.

    My main problem with criticism of Garland is that it tends to wave away the very real constraints imposed by the system.  Probably there are things he could or should have done to speed things up, maybe he’s screwed up more than I see, but the slow pace is normal.  It’s also absurd and intolerable, but that’s a whole system, three branch problem, not just a DOJ leadership problem.

  71. 71.

    Ruckus

    @hueyplong:

    In some countries they are not slow. They are also not fair and equitable. Often neither is much of humanity, but that is one reason that time and specific effort is involved. And it’s not often seen that way but one has to look at the BIG picture to see that often doing things that involve humans and human life in a rush, in a half or all ass methodology costs more than taking the time to get the biggest picture possible, knowing more of the bits and pieces, when to cut your losses, when to take that extra moment, when not to rush in. Some jobs require this more than others. And that list looks like a hodgepodge of all the tasks that humans are capable of.

  72. 72.

    moonbat

    I’m so old I remember the doubters on this blog swearing up and down that NO ONE would be prosecuted for 1/6/21. People not moving as fast as I’d want them to is not the same thing as people not doing or not wanting to do their jobs. More than 1200 arrests and more than 450 sentences later the Garland haters still sound like a bunch of Karens at the DOJ customer service desk.

  73. 73.

    planetjanet

    I want to see Trump punished as much as everyone.  But I will not join the chorus of wailing that Garland is slow.  It was critically important to go after the mob on January 6th.  The problem is not just Trump, it is the entire Republican party and its adherents.  By shutting down the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers, and all the local wannabe warlords, the threat of widespread civil unrest has been greatly reduced.  People are much less inclined to act on the impulses of the TFG.  I’d wager every local media market has at least one person arrested and convicted.  It becomes real when you see someone like you be made to account for their actions.  TFG is much less powerful without the threat of his mob.  We are reaping those benefits.

  75. 75.

    Bobby Thomson

    John Oliver’s politics are decidedly to the left of Jon Stewart’s but he has a bigger impact because, among other reasons, he’s not a moronic bothsidesing douchebro

  76. 76.

    Ruckus

    @Sanjeevs:

    It doesn’t mean that he has to like the time it takes but this is a large country, we have politics that are rather different from side to side, a lot of our laws are rather complicated, a lot of courts are busy and we require that people aren’t take behind the building and whipped. We demand something that a lot of countries never used to get, a reasonably fair trial. And that ain’t always easy. No matter how shitty DJT is, he has supporters, in a environment that is pretty far spread apart about how things should work and be. That has to be recognized because it is likely that we as a country will always have that, at least to some degree, if for no other reason than – humanity. I’m an old and I see a rather large change in this country over the last 50-60 yrs. Hell, in the world even. And yes it is a change for what I see as good, and it is a change that will be continuing to be made, if for no other reason than there are far more of us now, in this country and in the world. But there are always people that will fight change, for numerous reasons, and I don’t see that going away.

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