For the morbidly rich - the Trumps, the Kushners, the Dimons, the Thomases, all the rest, money is a symbol of the obvious worth they bring to humanity. It is everything to them, and it is how they rank against each other. The more you have, the higher you are on the pecking order. To the rest of us however, they look like the reason the Sans Sabots stormed the Bastille and set up MMe. La Guillotine.
Well put, Peter. Not for nothing, but the French Revolution started because the king chose to repudiate the national debt rather than raise taxes on the rich and the clergy...
The arrogant unrepentiveness of Thomas is the most shocking aspect to me. With all that has been revealed about his "friendships" with Leo & Crow, he continues to brazenly serve his masters, churning out reprehensible opinions. Let's begin fixing this abominable court, starting with Thomas' removal.
His unrepentant nature has been there at least since the Anita Hill hearings, which he called "a high tech lynching." He's an arrogant SOB who punches way above his weight with the help of friends in high places.
A purple Hèrmes Berkin 30 handbag (purse) can be purchased for only $35,208. It is made of purple ostrich leather with silver hardware. You can get a purple Montana West handbag on Amazon for $12.99, including free delivery, & put the remaining $35,195 in it, or even better, donate that savings to a worthy charity. Just don’t give it to a Trump charity for kids with cancer.
I don’t either, as you are probably aware. I was trying to highlight that acquiring an expensive item, like one that a celebrity owns, won’t make you intrinsically happier in the long run. Owning a lot of « things » isn’t the path to satisfaction with your life. For some time now I’ve been asking myself the question you pose, how much is enough? From what I read, the ultra wealthy aren’t any happier than I am. Why do people begrudge helping another human being to improve their life? It puzzles me.
I just finished reading a great book called "Triumph of the Yuppies." (I'm having the author on my podcast in a few weeks.) In it, he quotes the presidents of some prestigious schools warning about just what you're saying: that it's not the shallow pursuits that will make you feel fulfilled. The graduates ignored these words of wisdom, largely. I really enjoyed the book.
But then, I quote Weird Al, who in the theme song to "Johnny Dangerously" said: "if you can't buy happiness, I guess I'll have to rent it." ; )
Beautiful again, Greg. Disturbingly and depressingly brilliant, but brilliant nonetheless. By the way, the guest post on Longfellow yesterday was outstanding.
I can add nothing to your outstanding column, but I do have one Nepo baby comment. Harlan Crow could be the poster child for that. I attended law school at SMU in Dallas from 1975-1978 and stayed in Dallas for a year or two after that, working in downtown Dallas. Harlan’s dad was THE Dallas real estate developer in those years, especially commercial and industrial. I believe he went nationwide too. The Trammell Crow Company was everywhere and so was Trammell Crow himself.
I can only imagine the luxurious and worry free life that has been Harlan Crow’s. I know it’s my “poor white roots” showing, but people like Harlan Crow make me ill. They have no clue about life, about people, or much of anything. My daughter’s favorite show ever is “Arrested Development.” That IS rich people, especially ones who grew up with wealth. I have had a few clients with generational inherited wealth, and even a friend or two from church, and even the nicest and kindest of them, have ZERO awareness about the lives of the rest of us riff raff. To think that Harlan Crow is the guy that “befriended” Clarence Thomas after he was on the Supreme Court just makes me crazy.
Our country is messed up right now, it really is. Keep up the good work, sir.
Thanks, Rick. I'm glad you liked the Longfellow piece!
Your daughter has excellent taste in shows. "Arrested Development" is brilliant, especially in the second and third seasons, not least because you slowly realize that the entire premise -- that one son, Michael, is the only one who isn't useless -- is not true, and he's just as bad as everyone else but doesn't know it.
Good call on Crow, although, from what I understand, Harlan DID prove to be good at the job, navigating the company away from going bust and to greater riches. But then, what was the line about Dubya being born on third base and thinking he hit a triple?
Shame, indeed, Greg. There's another group most of us have never heard of, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) that apparently is as influential as the NRA. So, even if the NRA were to implode, NSSF will be front and center to continue the carnage. I have not read the entire substack, yet, but will do so soon.
Though Thomas grew up in poverty, I will take it as an explanation but no excuse for his behavior once attaining the power that being a Supreme Court justice bestowed upon him. There are so many stories of people who started off poor and after succeeding, did not turn their backs on humanity. He needs some serious therapy as far as I am concerned.
Biden talks about if 45 wins, he will appoint two new SC justices. Biden can get the jump on him now and nominate two of his own. At this point I am reminding my 3 reps that I want to see the Court expanded to at least 13 and will push more aggressively for it when Biden wins again.
I was trying to put that into the piece but it didn't fit right: the irony of Clarence Thomas is that he's someone we should be rooting for, based on his background, his triumph over adversity, and his achievement. But we never will, because of the abuse of power for evil.
The degree of projection displayed by Martha-Ann and her "vergogna" flag breaks my brain. You obviously can't have any shame if you've projected all of it.
Many of us have been following Thomas's career since Anita Hill turned the spotlight on him, so nothing he does is surprising. I thank you very much, Greg, for reporting on Leo and Crow, of whom I now know a lot more. I also thank you for introducing me to NSSF. Your analysis of what the heck is going on his enlightening, if not truly disturbing.
I don't think expanding the Court is the answer--they (the money interests behind the power in DC)--will just repack it as they have done now. There are pathways to clearing the Court of unworthy justices (Kavanaugh! Amy C-B! Alito and his wife. Thomas and his wife.), but it is necessary for the folks in congress to behave ethically as well. Right now, I don't see it. I don't have any good ideas about how to remedy the fungus that is growing in our major governmental branches, but I do know this: We must commit to supporting a free press. It is the bedrock of this society.
AG and I were debating this at the Daily Beans live show on Monday night. I maintain that the more judges are on a court, the harder it is to corrupt. I want 81 judges. I'm so sick of having to know the names of these people, and their spending habits, and their predilection to pancreatic cancer.
Clarence is not smart, surely incompetent and refuses to break a sweat to accomplish anything. He had the temerity to call his sister (way back when) a welfare queen who waits in anticipation for her checks to arrive and then accused her children of heading down the same track - except it wasn’t true, she used public assistance for a short time, but always worked to support her children. Clarence is a prostitute (nothing wrong with that) as a side hustle to his no show job for which he does next to nothing. Clarence was the replacement for Justice Thurgood Marshall, how sad is that! Thanks for letting me rant!
Looked at another way, he IS smart, because he's rinsed these billionaires out of all that money, and he's gotten himself installed at a job where he can't be fired, no matter what shit he pulls.
Are you familiar with the phrase, “The more you have, the more you need”? Just the daily upkeep on a house and property such as what they have can be astounding because there will always be something to do to keep it up to snuff. Then there are the taxes, insurance; same for that expensive motor home of theirs. Some people who grew up poor can very easily overspend when they find themselves in much higher cotton. I know. I lived it in my first marriage.
No doubt that is true, but I don't get that vibe from them. Anything that REALLY costs a lot to upkeep -- planes, yachts -- he just bums from his buddies. My take is that he was like that early on his life, when he started to make money and bought the Corvette with the vanity plates, but that he corrected that with his foray into rinsing. His disclosure form shows a LOT of investments.
I just listened to the podcast Slow Burn about Clarence Thomas. I highly recommend it. He has a chip on his shoulder about being black, he wanted to be seen as successful in spite of the color of his skin not because of it. I digress. Great piece as usual Greg.
I think the answer to why Thomas can do/take/write all this stuff is because he can. As with Alito, he doesn't even have to CARE whether what he does makes sense. He just has to look at a case that will (or might) show up before the court, look over his list of "friends" to see what one of them might want, and tell his clerks to "write something that Crow will like."
I can just SEE the confab his 4 clerks had trying to come up with the bump stock opinion. "Single action of the trigger." "Well," says one, "it just takes a single action to get the bump stock going." "No No", another cries "Mr. Gifter would hate that. Clearly the 1934 legislators anticipated something that would amplify that first act of finger on depression of the trigger and cause the trigger to just keep going--they didn't know HOW but this is America where Progress is Our Most Important Product. So they put on their swami hat, gazed about 80 years into the future, and chose to write a definition that clearly excludes such a possibility in the definition of Machine Gun."
"By George, I think he's got it," they all cry. "What an original originalist opinion this will be."
This opinion will redefine the idea of a murder of Crows.
You're probably right, Susan. The logic here reminds me of the "what 'is' is" stuff Bill Clinton would say about Monica. True to the letter, but not the spirit, of the law.
For the morbidly rich - the Trumps, the Kushners, the Dimons, the Thomases, all the rest, money is a symbol of the obvious worth they bring to humanity. It is everything to them, and it is how they rank against each other. The more you have, the higher you are on the pecking order. To the rest of us however, they look like the reason the Sans Sabots stormed the Bastille and set up MMe. La Guillotine.
Well put, Peter. Not for nothing, but the French Revolution started because the king chose to repudiate the national debt rather than raise taxes on the rich and the clergy...
And how far out of the realm of possibility is that for a Dicktator Trump and his minions?
The arrogant unrepentiveness of Thomas is the most shocking aspect to me. With all that has been revealed about his "friendships" with Leo & Crow, he continues to brazenly serve his masters, churning out reprehensible opinions. Let's begin fixing this abominable court, starting with Thomas' removal.
His unrepentant nature has been there at least since the Anita Hill hearings, which he called "a high tech lynching." He's an arrogant SOB who punches way above his weight with the help of friends in high places.
I'd forgotten about that. Disgusting on so many levels.
A deficiency of shame, the prerequisite to arrogant unrepentiveness, is a trait Leo looks for in his judges.
That’s because Leo is a deficient tortured soul. At least, he thinks he is.
A purple Hèrmes Berkin 30 handbag (purse) can be purchased for only $35,208. It is made of purple ostrich leather with silver hardware. You can get a purple Montana West handbag on Amazon for $12.99, including free delivery, & put the remaining $35,195 in it, or even better, donate that savings to a worthy charity. Just don’t give it to a Trump charity for kids with cancer.
I don't begrudge anyone some temporal pleasures, but how many Berkins does one need?
(And: nice dig at the cancer charity).
I don’t either, as you are probably aware. I was trying to highlight that acquiring an expensive item, like one that a celebrity owns, won’t make you intrinsically happier in the long run. Owning a lot of « things » isn’t the path to satisfaction with your life. For some time now I’ve been asking myself the question you pose, how much is enough? From what I read, the ultra wealthy aren’t any happier than I am. Why do people begrudge helping another human being to improve their life? It puzzles me.
Oh, I know.
I just finished reading a great book called "Triumph of the Yuppies." (I'm having the author on my podcast in a few weeks.) In it, he quotes the presidents of some prestigious schools warning about just what you're saying: that it's not the shallow pursuits that will make you feel fulfilled. The graduates ignored these words of wisdom, largely. I really enjoyed the book.
But then, I quote Weird Al, who in the theme song to "Johnny Dangerously" said: "if you can't buy happiness, I guess I'll have to rent it." ; )
Beautiful again, Greg. Disturbingly and depressingly brilliant, but brilliant nonetheless. By the way, the guest post on Longfellow yesterday was outstanding.
I can add nothing to your outstanding column, but I do have one Nepo baby comment. Harlan Crow could be the poster child for that. I attended law school at SMU in Dallas from 1975-1978 and stayed in Dallas for a year or two after that, working in downtown Dallas. Harlan’s dad was THE Dallas real estate developer in those years, especially commercial and industrial. I believe he went nationwide too. The Trammell Crow Company was everywhere and so was Trammell Crow himself.
I can only imagine the luxurious and worry free life that has been Harlan Crow’s. I know it’s my “poor white roots” showing, but people like Harlan Crow make me ill. They have no clue about life, about people, or much of anything. My daughter’s favorite show ever is “Arrested Development.” That IS rich people, especially ones who grew up with wealth. I have had a few clients with generational inherited wealth, and even a friend or two from church, and even the nicest and kindest of them, have ZERO awareness about the lives of the rest of us riff raff. To think that Harlan Crow is the guy that “befriended” Clarence Thomas after he was on the Supreme Court just makes me crazy.
Our country is messed up right now, it really is. Keep up the good work, sir.
That is so true.
Thanks, Rick. I'm glad you liked the Longfellow piece!
Your daughter has excellent taste in shows. "Arrested Development" is brilliant, especially in the second and third seasons, not least because you slowly realize that the entire premise -- that one son, Michael, is the only one who isn't useless -- is not true, and he's just as bad as everyone else but doesn't know it.
Good call on Crow, although, from what I understand, Harlan DID prove to be good at the job, navigating the company away from going bust and to greater riches. But then, what was the line about Dubya being born on third base and thinking he hit a triple?
Thanks, Greg. You obviously know more about Harlan Crow than I do! People like him just trigger me big time as you could see.
Shame, indeed, Greg. There's another group most of us have never heard of, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) that apparently is as influential as the NRA. So, even if the NRA were to implode, NSSF will be front and center to continue the carnage. I have not read the entire substack, yet, but will do so soon.
https://armedwithreason.substack.com/p/national-shooting-sports-foundation
Though Thomas grew up in poverty, I will take it as an explanation but no excuse for his behavior once attaining the power that being a Supreme Court justice bestowed upon him. There are so many stories of people who started off poor and after succeeding, did not turn their backs on humanity. He needs some serious therapy as far as I am concerned.
Biden talks about if 45 wins, he will appoint two new SC justices. Biden can get the jump on him now and nominate two of his own. At this point I am reminding my 3 reps that I want to see the Court expanded to at least 13 and will push more aggressively for it when Biden wins again.
To expand the SCOTUS would be to *unpack* it
You're absolutely right, Defendario...my bad!
NP my friend and one more thing wrt SCOTUS would be to apply Term Limits via Legislation. It's past time to reform the institution
Term Limits, yes, please!
I was trying to put that into the piece but it didn't fit right: the irony of Clarence Thomas is that he's someone we should be rooting for, based on his background, his triumph over adversity, and his achievement. But we never will, because of the abuse of power for evil.
Excellent piece and you didn't even get to the theme of revenge that some say is at the heartless heart of "Justice" Thomas's actions.
If that is true, it's a mental disorder, and he should step down at once.
ABSOLUTELY mentally ill. And his little wifey too.
The degree of projection displayed by Martha-Ann and her "vergogna" flag breaks my brain. You obviously can't have any shame if you've projected all of it.
Does using the Italian word make it an IRONIC shame?
Anita Hill was the canary in the coal mine.
Indeed.
Subscriptions to "various substacks," in with basic expenses! Saw what you did there - well played!
Yep, my Substacks cost WAY more than my car payments. Of course, I bought the car in 2015.
My 2008 Honda Fit has 279000 miles at 34 mpg and ice cold AC.
Consequently I can afford 3 Substackers
Susan, thank you for the Like.
Cal retired cop.
PhD in Street
Have known a lot of lawyers
They make great cars, they really do.
Had to work that in... ; )
: )
I repeat: Clarence is still drinking clorox.
Many of us have been following Thomas's career since Anita Hill turned the spotlight on him, so nothing he does is surprising. I thank you very much, Greg, for reporting on Leo and Crow, of whom I now know a lot more. I also thank you for introducing me to NSSF. Your analysis of what the heck is going on his enlightening, if not truly disturbing.
I don't think expanding the Court is the answer--they (the money interests behind the power in DC)--will just repack it as they have done now. There are pathways to clearing the Court of unworthy justices (Kavanaugh! Amy C-B! Alito and his wife. Thomas and his wife.), but it is necessary for the folks in congress to behave ethically as well. Right now, I don't see it. I don't have any good ideas about how to remedy the fungus that is growing in our major governmental branches, but I do know this: We must commit to supporting a free press. It is the bedrock of this society.
Thank you for your service to the rest of us.
AG and I were debating this at the Daily Beans live show on Monday night. I maintain that the more judges are on a court, the harder it is to corrupt. I want 81 judges. I'm so sick of having to know the names of these people, and their spending habits, and their predilection to pancreatic cancer.
Clarence is not smart, surely incompetent and refuses to break a sweat to accomplish anything. He had the temerity to call his sister (way back when) a welfare queen who waits in anticipation for her checks to arrive and then accused her children of heading down the same track - except it wasn’t true, she used public assistance for a short time, but always worked to support her children. Clarence is a prostitute (nothing wrong with that) as a side hustle to his no show job for which he does next to nothing. Clarence was the replacement for Justice Thurgood Marshall, how sad is that! Thanks for letting me rant!
Looked at another way, he IS smart, because he's rinsed these billionaires out of all that money, and he's gotten himself installed at a job where he can't be fired, no matter what shit he pulls.
That doesn't make it any better, though...
It’s TUESDAY🎉
My favorite day!
Are you familiar with the phrase, “The more you have, the more you need”? Just the daily upkeep on a house and property such as what they have can be astounding because there will always be something to do to keep it up to snuff. Then there are the taxes, insurance; same for that expensive motor home of theirs. Some people who grew up poor can very easily overspend when they find themselves in much higher cotton. I know. I lived it in my first marriage.
No doubt that is true, but I don't get that vibe from them. Anything that REALLY costs a lot to upkeep -- planes, yachts -- he just bums from his buddies. My take is that he was like that early on his life, when he started to make money and bought the Corvette with the vanity plates, but that he corrected that with his foray into rinsing. His disclosure form shows a LOT of investments.
I just listened to the podcast Slow Burn about Clarence Thomas. I highly recommend it. He has a chip on his shoulder about being black, he wanted to be seen as successful in spite of the color of his skin not because of it. I digress. Great piece as usual Greg.
Thanks, Christine! Good recommendation.
I think the answer to why Thomas can do/take/write all this stuff is because he can. As with Alito, he doesn't even have to CARE whether what he does makes sense. He just has to look at a case that will (or might) show up before the court, look over his list of "friends" to see what one of them might want, and tell his clerks to "write something that Crow will like."
I can just SEE the confab his 4 clerks had trying to come up with the bump stock opinion. "Single action of the trigger." "Well," says one, "it just takes a single action to get the bump stock going." "No No", another cries "Mr. Gifter would hate that. Clearly the 1934 legislators anticipated something that would amplify that first act of finger on depression of the trigger and cause the trigger to just keep going--they didn't know HOW but this is America where Progress is Our Most Important Product. So they put on their swami hat, gazed about 80 years into the future, and chose to write a definition that clearly excludes such a possibility in the definition of Machine Gun."
"By George, I think he's got it," they all cry. "What an original originalist opinion this will be."
This opinion will redefine the idea of a murder of Crows.
You're probably right, Susan. The logic here reminds me of the "what 'is' is" stuff Bill Clinton would say about Monica. True to the letter, but not the spirit, of the law.