Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

I did not have this on my fuck 2024 bingo card.

I really should read my own blog.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

“woke” is the new caravan.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

The revolution will be supervised.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Fight them, without becoming them!

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Let there be snark.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: Clarence Thomas Is Not Happy

Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: Clarence Thomas Is Not Happy

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Late Night Open Thread: Clarence Thomas Is Not Happy

And you know ‘Just Us’ Thomas really means it, because the original AP story was printed by both Politico and NBC News. I personally see this as a small hopeful sign — sounds like Thomas would like to leave the bench and spend his golden years touring with his beloved Ginni, but his oligarch “friends” won’t let him retire if a reelected President Biden will be there to replace him with a Democrat.

(Also, frankly, can’t be much fun even for a professional Grievance Collector like Thomas to be reminded every day that he was indeed elevated as a token, an insult to Justice Thurgood Marshall, a Caligula’s horse in clown shoes.)

His wife is a fucking conseravtive activist who tried to end democracy and overturn Biden's election on January 6th, fucking spare me this bullshit

[image or embed]

— Lord Businessman II (@lordbusinessman.bsky.social) May 12, 2024 at 4:40 PM

… Thomas spoke at a conference attended by judges, attorneys and other court personnel in the 11th Circuit Judicial Conference, which hears federal cases from Alabama, Florida and Georgia. He made the comments pushing back on his critics in response to a question about working in a world that seems meanspirited.

“I think there’s challenges to that. We’re in a world and we — certainly my wife and I the last two or three years it’s been — just the nastiness and the lies, it’s just incredible,” Thomas said.

“But you have some choices. You don’t get to prevent people from doing horrible things or saying horrible things. But one you have to understand and accept the fact that they can’t change you unless you permit that,” Thomas said…

No mention in the article of his hearers yelling The South shall rise again!…

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Reader Interactions

87Comments

  1. 1.

    TeezySkeezy

    That one image is like some Twin Peaks Season 3-ish nightmare. You know which one.

  2. 2.

    eclare

    I hope people are scared enough at this point to take that last tweet seriously.  I know I am (of course I always was).

  3. 3.

    mrmoshpotato

    And you know ‘Just Us’ Thomas really means it, because the original AP story was printed by both Politico and NBC News. I personally see this as a small hopeful sign — sounds like Thomas would like to leave the bench and spend his golden years touring with his beloved Ginni

    Well, he should take John Oliver’s offer.  It looks like a damn nice motorhome.

    Oh, and Ginni should be in jail, the insurrectioniist trash!

  4. 4.

    danielx

    Tried to work up a bit of sympathy for him, total failure.​
     
    Eta: what lies, specifically are you referring to, Justice Thomas?
    Honorable, my ass.

  6. 6.

    Chet Murthy

    @eclare: This RV of Thomas’ — IIRC it’s a sweet quarter-mill, and it’s based on a bus body ?  He can’t be driving that himself, can he?  He’s gotta have a driver for it, I’d think.  I mean …. he’s a SCOTUS justice: he can’t be used to doing that kind of manual labor, I’d think.

  7. 7.

    Jay

    @Chet Murthy:

    Nope, just requires a regular drivers license.

    Friends had one, wasn’t hard to drive, not fun to park or back up.

    But you are assuming that their tall tales of Walmart Camping are real.

  8. 8.

    Ishiyama

    I once had the honor to appear before the Supremes, when Justice Marshall was still on the bench.

  9. 9.

    eclare

    @Chet Murthy:

    I think it’s at least a quarter million.  I don’t know if he drives it or not, I bet that seat is like a Laz-y-boy, the issue would be if he needs to respond to something quickly.  Maybe he has a driver/cook/housekeeper?  But that would encroach on their privacy, so who knows.

  10. 10.

    Chet Murthy

    @Jay: Well, uh, heh heh, indeed just as you say.  I *don’t* believe their Walmart camping tales, b/c I don’t believe he’s up to the task of driving that sucker over long distances.  I think the only way that happens is if he has a hired driver.  And that’s serious $$.  But hey, I bet he can get one of his sugar daddies to send him one of their chauffeurs.

  12. 12.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    I take issue with one of the postulates in Sisson’s post: I doubt that either Mister Thomas or Mister Alito will voluntarily leave the Court if there’s any chance of a Democratic President appointing their replacements. The only way that scenario will come to pass is if one (or preferably both) of them leaves feet-first.

  16. 16.

    Jay

    @Chet Murthy:

    Bob and Bun who are in their 80’s, drive one from Arizona to Alberta twice a year, and Bob only has one leg. And it’s not his good leg, they had to amputate that one. Their biggest issue, was wheelchair access, ( a lift), because Bob can’t walk.

    These rigs are automatics, power steering, power brakes, all the bells and whistles. Outside of city streets, they are a breeze to drive, once you take into account slow acceleration, (compared to a car), windage and safe stopping distances.

  18. 18.

    Chet Murthy

    @Jay: I’m guessing that your friends Bob&Bun are regular folks, like us.  But Just Us Thomas and Ginnie the Insurrectionist are patricians: they have people to do a shit-ton of stuff for them every day.  I can’t believe that they’re actually up to the task of paying attention to driving for 2-4hours straight: not after the cushy kind of lives they’ve lived the past third-of-a-century.

  19. 19.

    eclare

    @Jay:

    That’s my impression of what it’s like to drive, a good friend of mine has one.  She and her husband are in their fifties, but they go all over the US, no problems, no worries

    They stopped by to see me a few years ago on their way from ATL to Montana.

  24. 24.

    SpaceUnit

    Sorry, but neither Thomas nor Alito would ever retire under a Dem administration.

     

    They are zealots to the core.

  25. 25.

    Jay

    @Chet Murthy:

    These days, most “Walmart Campers” are either short term employees working short contract to contract, (sorry, “Independent Contractors”), or the unhoused.

    I don’t see Clarence and Ginni hanging out over a pallet campfire sharing a can of baked beans with the great unwashed.

    These days, Bun and Bob stay in campgrounds, or park in a motel/hotel parking lot with a “full access ability suite”.

    It’s all just a tall tale.

  27. 27.

    eclare

    @Jay:

    My friends def prefer RV parks, but they do stay at Wal-Marts occasionally, depending on where they are and what time.  They stayed at one on their way here because it was around 10 at night, and they were in Bug Guts Alabama.

    But no, no way in hell Clarence stays at one.

  29. 29.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Jay: Oh, I’m not hoping. I’m voting, which is pretty much all I can do as a citizen abroad. And I can’t think of a plan in that regard that wouldn’t require multiple prepaid alibi witnesses.

  31. 31.

    SpaceUnit

    @NotMax:

    RFK ain’t gonna happen.  He can only be a spoiler.

    And currently I think he’s a much bigger threat to trump.  His only appeal is to the lunatic fringe.

  32. 32.

    Tony Jay

    I’d imagine that Clarence Ofginni and his goggle-eyed pimp ‘drive their RV’ in the same way that Shrub ‘farmed his ranch’ – purely as a PR canapé for the Media and nothing to do with how they really live their twisted little lives.

  35. 35.

    piratedan

    There are times when I wonder if the DOJ made the right call going after Trump first and letting everything else kind of simmer.  I have thoughts about bringing charges of sedition and conspiracy against the likes of Hawley, Cruz, Johnson and Congressmen Jones, Gosar, McCarthy and Ginny Thomas, as well as those members of the WH staff that concocted the J6 events and the false electors schemes all at once to flood the field with so much litigation that the GOP would lose their shit trying to cover their asses.

    The delays have allowed the media narratives to get reset provided narrower focus for the defense of Trump himself instead of an overcrowded lifeboat of scoundrels looking for people to pitch overboard to save themselves….  yeah… its hindsight, but I do wonder.

  37. 37.

    Jay

    @eclare:

    Bun and Bob, plan their trips. private RV Parks here are urban, or clustered around National Parks,  but you can reserve a campsite at a Provincial Park, a National Park and a Forest Service Site online, ahead of time.

    The National Parks have full service RV sites. The Provincial Parks have some service RV sites, the FSR’s range from just outhouses, picnic tables and a fire pit, (when fires are allowed), to just a few flat spots of gravel on the ground.

    Both the Provincial and National Parks have paved access, some of the FSR sites are at the back end of a hairy 4WD road, some are not, just along a gravel road.

    First time seeing “The Bus”. T and I met them at Rock Creek, they were heading to Alberta, and detoured, we went down and joined them. It had been a few years. “The Bus” with everything folded out was 3/4’s the size of our house. T and I slept in our 8′ x10′ tent, with the 2 dogs, (Pittie X and Belgian). Bun and Bob slept in their RV with their two dogs, (Teacup Yorkies).

    Rambo was Big Dog Attiude, so he and Digger were mates, Rudy was sniff, pee and chill energy, so he and Casey shared a dog bed, I cooked, (bakers, baby back ribs, Grand Forks sweet corn). A great time was had by all, (libations) until after bed time.

    A full moon came out over the cliffs, and every coyote within a 10 km radius started to howl. Inside the tent, Casey and Digger howled, inside the RV, Rambo and Rusty howled. That went on for about 8 hours.

    In the am, Bun and Bob staggered out, to find that I had already made strong coffee on my MSR backpacking stove, and had breakfast going.

    That afternoon, rain came in sideways, so we all retreated to their RV, ate microwave popcorn and watched “A River Runs Through It” on dvd with wet dogs on our laps.

    After that trip, I put in a gravel pad on our 40, so that Bun and Bob could “camp” there, even though we had a spare bedroom.

  38. 38.

    eclare

    @Jay:

    That sounds perfect.  Yeah my friends stay in national or state parks out west when they can, but here in Memphis it was an RV park.  Since they don’t have accessibility issues, they’re more of “so where do you want to go today?” type of travelers.  They have destinations in mind, but how to get there is up in the air til that morning, of course looking stuff up the whole way.

    And they travel with their Golden Retriever, Bailey.

  39. 39.

    sdhays

    @SpaceUnit: I assumed “retire” was a euphemism for “kick the bucket” that wouldn’t hazard the attention of the US Marshals Service.

  41. 41.

    lowtechcyclist

    Fuck Clarence’s complaints about Washington nastiness. He’s got resources to keep himself and his insurrectionist wife protected from the masses, courtesy of all his billionaire sugar daddies.

    The dangerous nastiness has come from the Right, and has driven minor state and local officials away from public service because they were just ordinary people without any resources: election workers, state and local public health officials, school board members, hospital workers, anybody that they get pissed at that doesn’t have the resources to fend off a mob.

    We as a nation really need to do something to ensure that people like that can do their jobs without feeling threatened.  But fuck Clarence, he can retire or spend his vacations at a safe distance from the masses courtesy of Harlan Crow and his other sugar daddies.  The only thing he has to worry about is criticism, and if he can’t stand that heat, he should GTFO of the kitchen.

  42. 42.

    lowtechcyclist

    The obvious solution to Thomas, Alito, etc. is to expand SCOTUS, but I just don’t see the Dems having the guts for that.

    But when it’s suggested, one sort of justification that comes up is that there ought to be one Justice for each circuit court, and that there’s thirteen circuit courts.  Now there’s the First through Eleventh Circuits, and there’s the DC Circuit. That’s twelve.

    Honest question for the legal eagles: what’s the thirteenth circuit court?

  43. 43.

    Princess

    I wish I believed he spent his days feeling terribly sad. Unfortunately I think nothing gives him more pleasure than a sense of victimization and woe is me and I expect he’s happy as a clam.

  44. 44.

    Matt McIrvin

    Justice Clarence Thomas is 75. Justice Alito is 74. They are getting older and will retire soon. If Biden is re-elected and they retire, he gets to select their successors meaning a liberal Supreme Court.

    They’d have to die, or be physically debilitated to the point that it can’t be hidden–no way are they going to voluntarily retire with any Democratic President in office, even if they’re 99.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    “Me, me, me”

    What an interesting and enlightening speech!

    Someone should tell Thomas, Alito and Coney Barrett that they can’t demand that people admire them. It’s our choice whether we do or not. We don’t.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    Imagine how much ass kissing and groveling the conservative judges have gotten used to in the cloistered little world of the Federalist Society – they can no longer function in the normal world where they’re criticized.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    I think this is the one of the worst parts of Trumpism on the Right – the ridiculous spectacle of some of the most powerful people on the planet insisting they are victims. They want to run roughshod over everyone and then demand, petulantly, to be liked.

    This isn’t the way to restore credibility and trust. You don’t scream “I am credible and trustworthy!” over and over. Credibility is earned. Trust is given.

  52. 52.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    When we lived in Iowa, we went out to breakfast at Panera on the weekend, and a couple who had an RV was often there. The guy would talk to anyone about how great RVing was. As a topic of conversation, it was strange.

  55. 55.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: With enough force, it’s possible to break people, like Winston Smith in 1984. That’s how the right wants to earn love and trust. It’s how they raise children. It does work, though it takes a lot of effort.

  56. 56.

    Kay

    I went to see Scalia speak once and he went on and on about how great it was working in the private sector as a lawyer before he was a judge- he represented business interests, one of which was Toledo Scale, a Toledo company.

    I was thinking “if it sucks so much working for the public sector you should resign and go back to the private sector”. This is where their sense of entitlement and resentful bitterness comes from – they’re all convinced they “would have” made a ton of money and been hugely successful in the private sector, but “sacrificed” to work in the public sector. That’s why they demand you admire them.

  57. 57.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I had a great-aunt and -uncle who RV’d around the country. They loved the life but it seemed like they took every available opportunity to set up at the household of some friend or family member who had a sufficient parking space, electric power and amenities.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Just announced on MJ: Mike Johnson will be playing the role of TIFG’s emotional support chew toy at the courthouse today. Ugh.

  62. 62.

    BellyCat

    Mandatory retirement at end of calendar year when justice turns 78. That’s the rule in PA. (And expand the court, of course).

  63. 63.

    Layer8Problem

    I never got the RV thing beyond thinking it might be nice to walk out mornings from a comfy bedroom through my teeny kitchenette and out the door to a cool pine-scented vista. We know a couple who did it, first buying a smaller one, then dropping the cash for a great big land yacht. The husband couldn’t stop talking about the utter wonderfulness of the lifestyle, driving across the continent, parking in Walmarts, going to RV meetups, and tooling around to campsites. He is one of the loudest liberals I ever knew that wasn’t talking into a megaphone, but had no problem with a 6 to 10 mile per gallon vehicle that always seemed to spend a couple of weeks at the factory in Indiana somewhere getting something repaired every year. Lots of nice people love them though, and presumably lots of people like the Thomases. My opinion may be skewed by a very long trip up a hill on US 101 in California at the end of a long line of cars behind a very slow RV.

  64. 64.

    TS

    @BellyCat:

    Mandatory retirement at end of calendar year when justice turns 78

    In Australia it’s 70 for high court judges. Works well for everyone. Retired ones always get the job of running special inquiries. (Royal Commissions as named in Australia)

  65. 65.

    lowtechcyclist

    @BellyCat:

    Mandatory retirement at end of calendar year when justice turns 78. That’s the rule in PA. (And expand the court, of course).

    Mandatory retirement would require a Constitutional amendment, so we can forget that.

    Expanding the Court can be done by Congress.  The argument against it, of course, is that if the Dems expand to 15, the next Rethug President and Congress expand it to 23 or some such number.

    But since the next Rethug President will set himself up as an autocrat anyway, it hardly matters.  Just expand SCOTUS, Dems.

  66. 66.

    Baud

    @lowtechcyclist:

    We’ll be lucky to have 50 Senators and that’ll include independent Angus King. We’d need a wave election before undertaking something so momentus.  Keep pushing, but correct expectations are important.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    @Layer8Problem:

    We rented one once and took all four kids to Vermont from Ohio. They have a whole comedy routine amongst themselves to this day about how it was the worst vacation ever. The giant windshield was struck by a stone and cracked not two hours after departure. The air conditioning quit in Pennsylvania. At one point we had to stop and let them out so found a creek for them to jump into. These wisecracking New England youths showed up and were jeering at us like we were the Joads.

  69. 69.

    Betty Cracker

    My mom bought a small, beat-up old RV when she retired. She hated driving and never drove it — always talked others into piloting. She, the kiddo and I took a trip to the Blue Ridge in the RV one summer, and I was at the wheel the entire time. Once at a gas station I asked her to pull it into a parking space 15 feet away when fueling was complete so I could hit up the facilities. She wouldn’t!

  70. 70.

    Another Scott

    A neighbor had a big old Winnebago-ish thing with a Chrysler 440 in their driveway for a decade or so.  I don’t think they ever took it on a trip the time I saw it there.  The old man eventually passed away and they managed to get it running and sold it.

    I think big RVs are kinda like boats or time-shares.  Maybe, maybe great for a week or two vacation once a year or two.  Otherwise, they’re a huge weight, a money pit, and a waste of attention.

    But, different strokes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  72. 72.

    Quiltingfool

    @Kay: You made a comment in a thread about how your husband thought it important to give your kids experiences instead of things.  I thought, “What great parents these kids have!  They really get it.”

    The stories will be told again and again, and will bring laughter and joy—and the stories will never get old.

    Best gift ever.

  75. 75.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Quiltingfool: ​
     this thread is turning into a Cormac McCarthy novel!

    [NB to non-McCarthy readers: in his books, nothing good ever happens to anyone. Ever.]

  76. 76.

    trnc

    The victimhood of someone whose lifestyle is propped up by billionaires while the taxpayers pay his salary in a job he’s held for 33 years, his decisions are final and cannot be overturned all while his wife is an activist who was actively engaged in a coup attempt. Got it.

    Not to mention that that their retirement annual pay benefit is 100% of their highest annual salary.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    @Quiltingfool:

    My husband did all the driving – it was his idea. His family are originally from Connecticut so we were going to show the kids bucolic New England. After the AC broke he took his shirt off and I’ll never forget him hunched over the wheel, shirtless and sweating, “on vacation”. Vermont has very narrow roads and lots of bridges. Apparently he forgot that.

  78. 78.

    cmorenc

    If Trump wins and Thomas and Alito retire, the successors he will appoint will be far worse.  Justice Matthew Kacsmaryk…and a female who is suggested by Ginni Thomas.  Don’t count on Aileen Cannon being the worst possible female judge he could pick.

  79. 79.

    Quiltingfool

    @Kay: When you’re a kid, you don’t pay attention to road width, lol!

    Kinda like how Grandma’s house seemed big when you were a child, but visiting when you’re an adult you suddenly realize Grandma’s house is actually quite small.

  80. 80.

    Quiltingfool

    @Steve in the ATL: Wanna hear sad?  Though I do love Missouri, I don’t really want to move to another state because I’d have to learn “new” rules (like property taxes, licensing things, etc.)!

    I’m lazy about such things.  Pitiful, ain’t it.

  82. 82.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @piratedan: Charging that many people, including sitting Congresspeople, might have resulted in even more delay with so many more lawyers, privilege, and Speech & Debate issues.  Part of the reason Smith chose to start by charging only Trump was to keep things simple and straight-forward to try and get him to trial before the election.  And it was very much on track to do so until this crooked Supreme Court jumped in to stall everything.  It’s hard to imagine things would have moved faster with more defendants and a much more complicated case to prove.  There’s also the very real possibility that as gross as what we all saw them do, Hawley, Cruz et al didn’t leave enough evidence to actually be charged and convicted of crimes.

  84. 84.

    Citizen Alan

    Just gonna remind everyone once again that abe fortas was denied the chief Justice position and later hounded off SCOTUS entirely due to a controversy arising from a matter of twenty thousand dollars in speaker fees. As a result, Nixon got to pick the new chief justice who was a reactionary conservative, and he put two other justices on the court one of whom was reinquist.

  85. 85.

    fancycwabs

    Since I’m originally from the area, I looked up the “luxury resort on the waters of Mobile Bay” and it was the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, Alabama.

    Point Clear is notable most recently for being the filming location of the Jordan Peele movie Get Out.

  86. 86.

    Ruckus

    Clarence Thomas says critics are pushing ‘nastiness’ and calls Washington a ‘hideous place’

    He may be correct.

    But he doesn’t realize that it’s people like him that make it that way.

  87. 87.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    This isn’t the way to restore credibility and trust. You don’t scream “I am credible and trustworthy!” over and over. Credibility is earned. Trust is given.

    I’d bet if you ask the two of them, they would say exactly the opposite. They are the kind of humans who – to be crude, think even their shit doesn’t stink, that they are so far above the herd that it is impossible that there is anything whatsoever about them that is negative. At one point in time that would be the normal attitude for people with power and money. But this country is supposed to be different. But it is most often extremely difficult to change humanity. And that is where we still are, with the people to whom power and money are by far the most important things in humanity. And we still give them power, because for many their concept of power and money is their overriding concept of life. And that is the leader of the supreme court and his wife.

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