Integrity once lost is difficult, if not nigh on to impossible to regain. The Thomases clearly have no regrets about losing theirs, and were it not for the fact that Clarence is an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, no one would care. However, just like a certain former president, who had no integrity to begin with, too many of Clarence Thomas’s ilk end up in positions of power that can lead to severe, even fatal outcomes. If America does not want to lose whatever integrity it has left, someone had better start holding these grasping misanthropes to account. Paging Merrick Garland. Paging Merrick Garland.
Excellent point, John, and we are already slipping into a place where there is zero integrity among the majority on the Court. Once faith there erodes, we're screwed.
Strange how these riechwing rich white men are able to capture black men in power. I mean Colin Powell lied us into a false flag war, Herman Caine died from hanging out with his Dear Leader, immigrants Ali Akbar aka Ali Alexander, Tarrio who is a Cuban-African both attempted to kill our elected officials, Ye aka Kanye West all worked to help a fascist take permanent power. Now Thomas, his idiot wife along the other five on SCOTUS continue to work feverishly to end more than 200 years of precedences holding back multinational fascist corporate corrupt greed instead hear legal cases by GOP judge forum shopping to promote new laws supporting this fallacy of corporation’s are people dogma.
You ever heard term Judas Horse? Judas are well trained domestic horses who are released a mile away from a bait trap corral to fool wild horses into believing it is helping them escape instead leads straight into awaiting cattle welfare ranchers traps, ships all to slaughter
Oh let me help...The reason we lost our Constitutional rights to abortion et al began in the first successful coupe by GOP in the 2000 Gore election when ACB, Roberts, Kavanaugh went to Thomas to overturn the will of the people leading to Alito appt. Stone was the architect of Brooks Bros riot.
I live in a southern state and asked my black neighbor if he knew where the 1917 lynching of two black men occurred, he pointed south and stated it was just a few miles away. I then asked him if he had experienced systemic racism and stated he had not...even though this state has a HIV/AIDS epidemic within this same black community and thanks to white leaders who refuse Medicare, same demographics are suffering and dying daily from lack of education and funds for medicine. See PBS ‘Wilhelmina’s War” as Nikki Haley was governor and under her watch, highest domestic violence in the nation. See Post and Courier Pulitzer Prize winner ‘Til Death Us Do Part’ for those receipt’s.
Greg, You inserted some appropriate film references into this post. Baldwin’s ABCs of Always Be Closing is how a grifter survives. Everyone is a mark. Your relatives, business associates, friends, encounters on the street - all potential marks. Put a grifter into the most influential job in the world, and what do you expect will happen? Theft is in the Trump family DNA. The former guy can not help himself. If something is not nailed down, he’ll take it. Give him a crowbar, and he’ll pry up nailed down objects and steal those too. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas can never get enough. They are entitled. They see themselves as oppressed people who are entitled to everything that they can carry away from any encounter. I can picture ole Clarence walking out of that last Senate confirmation hearing a minute or two following the vote making him a member of the SCOTUS with a slight smile on his face thinking that now for the rest of his life he can collect for the indignities he has suffered. He has a lifetime appointment to steal everything he can get. It’s a better job than being POTUS. No term limits and nô rules. Time to get even.
Great as always Greg! I have a question about your guest on the 5/8 Friday night Shiree I think was her name. She mentioned that CT was of Gullah descent as a way of explaining Clarence’s behavior/lifestyle. Can you elaborate on this topic or maybe have her on your podcast to talk/clarify her thoughts on CT?
Thanks, Christine. We did discuss it on the podcast I did with her last year, I believe. Unless my memory is foggy and we talked about it after we hit stop on the record button. She went into it in greater detail on the Afterhours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svJ4NZCJwf0&t=2s
Fogarty's "The Old Man Is Down the Road." Looks to me like the SC has survived the stench, so let them eat cake. We're supposed to believe he has no idea how those silly little ole disclosure forms are supposed to work, and his "advisor" said not to worry his pretty little head about those pressies from his admirers, but he's capable and qualified to get up in your uterus and pronounce judgement? Yeah, alrighty then. Where's Merrick Garland, oh he's super busy chasing 2 Chinese spies in a fake NY police station, I feel so much safer don't you? Durbin is pussy footing around waiting for Roberts to "investigate" his own mess, how will that work out I wonder? Oh and I refuse to offer him any honorific title, I just call him L.D. Silver.
To be fair, there are limits on what the Senate can do, I believe. Because of DiFi's absence, I read, they don't have the votes to have a real investigation. If CT broke the law -- and it appears that he did -- the DOJ should indict him. But I suspect that will never happen, not on MG's watch.
Well crafted piece Greg, one that many of us share sentiment with, you’ve laid it out perfectly!
The evil fuckery imposed upon “We the People” by wealth, greed, injustice and corporate corruption is nothing new in America. We’re all marks in a world chalk full of mountebanks.
CT, and his cadger wife Ginni, are notable, in a long line of pharisaic grifters. Where is Justice Roberts voice on his highest court of criminals? Today’s Supreme Court, where words substitute for thought, truth is replaced by injustice...hmm...
Beg to differ. Any piece about this heinous and brazen violation of ethics and public trust that invokes Cab Calloway, Bojack Horseman, and Breakfast at Tiffany's is in fact lol-funny., at least in part as a release. Because otherwise our inability to hold these traitorous modern-day robber barons accountable could lead to our taking to the streets...
To be very honest, I don't really care what Clarence and Ginni do with their time and their influential Nazi friends -- but for his position on the SCOTUS, of course. What infuriates me is the arrogance of it all. The idea that because he was INSTALLED on the Court that he is above all norms, laws, and let's face it, the "gentlemen's agreements" that have made this country run successfully for the most part, for almost 250 years. Now, and yes, this started in 2000 with the installation of GW by the SCOTUS to the presidency, it seems that many more people than I am comfortable with, have decided that their positions in government are there for their own benefit, and that doing the People's business is frequently an after-thought.
When someone, ANYONE, calls them out, the reaction is always, "Who? Me? I would never do such a thing! What you've accused me of is beyond the pale! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!" And as predictable as that sentiment is, it's also almost always a lie. People think, and Republicans especially, that their lives are such a mystery to the rest of us. That if they "perform" their roles to the best of their ability, that we'll all buy their bullshit like their true believers do. Ginni's testimony, UNDER OATH, that she and Clarence don't speak of SCOTUS things in the house, IRONCLAD RULE, don't you know, is not only laughable, but also a lie on more levels than there are of Hell. Her arrogance and lying, hypocritical, bigoted views are evident in almost everything she chooses to involve herself in, AND every little footnote in Court decisions coming from Clarence's hands. Not to say that Clarence himself doesn't share the same views, but I've always had the impression that he doesn't really write his own script. He just parrots the play that Ginni directs.
Then a tide turns and suddenly he's all but called on the carpet for the omissions on his financial disclosure forms and tries some self-serious bullshit about the gifts being "personal hospitality" or some such nonsense, and then seems INCREDIBLY put out that he has to go back and "correct" them. It's the arrogance of a king, which we're NOT supposed to have here, and the fact that anyone in the world still has them is ridiculous. Without his SCOTUS position, Clarence is a low-level attorney at best, and without Clarence, Ginni is a right-wing nut screeching into the wilderness. They don't seem to realize that, and there are obviously too few people in their lives to remind them. Yes, dears, we KNOW who you are!
I agree with every word of this, Steve...EXCEPT for the part about her being under oath. She was NOT under oath. That was a condition of her appearance. It drives Gal Suburban nuts.
They are laughing their “clad in gold” arses off at all of us. They are top of the list of who I would love to see brought down a peg or two…or just crashed to earth with a vengeance
I grew up assuming that people in positions of great authority—e.g., presidents and Supreme Court justices—were people of integrity and high standards. I wonder how this country has seemingly devolved into the situations we’re currently experiencing. Maybe it’s a combination of my earlier naïveté (it was always worse than I supposed) and the Trumpian influence to let one’s ‘corrupt flag’ fly. My favorite recent meme is “Things aren’t getting worse; they’re getting uncovered.” Maybe I can find solace in that.
Me too. At the very least, one likes to imagine that the people in power are at least qualified to do their jobs. Trump blew up that right quick. CT is not just corrupt; he's also a bad justice, devoid of empathy or original thought.
Integrity once lost is difficult, if not nigh on to impossible to regain. The Thomases clearly have no regrets about losing theirs, and were it not for the fact that Clarence is an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, no one would care. However, just like a certain former president, who had no integrity to begin with, too many of Clarence Thomas’s ilk end up in positions of power that can lead to severe, even fatal outcomes. If America does not want to lose whatever integrity it has left, someone had better start holding these grasping misanthropes to account. Paging Merrick Garland. Paging Merrick Garland.
Excellent point, John, and we are already slipping into a place where there is zero integrity among the majority on the Court. Once faith there erodes, we're screwed.
Strange how these riechwing rich white men are able to capture black men in power. I mean Colin Powell lied us into a false flag war, Herman Caine died from hanging out with his Dear Leader, immigrants Ali Akbar aka Ali Alexander, Tarrio who is a Cuban-African both attempted to kill our elected officials, Ye aka Kanye West all worked to help a fascist take permanent power. Now Thomas, his idiot wife along the other five on SCOTUS continue to work feverishly to end more than 200 years of precedences holding back multinational fascist corporate corrupt greed instead hear legal cases by GOP judge forum shopping to promote new laws supporting this fallacy of corporation’s are people dogma.
You ever heard term Judas Horse? Judas are well trained domestic horses who are released a mile away from a bait trap corral to fool wild horses into believing it is helping them escape instead leads straight into awaiting cattle welfare ranchers traps, ships all to slaughter
Omg.
Oh let me help...The reason we lost our Constitutional rights to abortion et al began in the first successful coupe by GOP in the 2000 Gore election when ACB, Roberts, Kavanaugh went to Thomas to overturn the will of the people leading to Alito appt. Stone was the architect of Brooks Bros riot.
Exactly, made me physically ill
Fellow equine advocate here. Never heard of a Judas Horse before. Sinister is all I can come up with.
Watch these brutal roundups. https://youtu.be/WNX3J5nW8Mc
Holy schitt
They think they are white, the fools have no mirrors
Just as one does not have to be a man to champion the patriarchy, one does not have to be white to champion white supremacy, alas.
I live in a southern state and asked my black neighbor if he knew where the 1917 lynching of two black men occurred, he pointed south and stated it was just a few miles away. I then asked him if he had experienced systemic racism and stated he had not...even though this state has a HIV/AIDS epidemic within this same black community and thanks to white leaders who refuse Medicare, same demographics are suffering and dying daily from lack of education and funds for medicine. See PBS ‘Wilhelmina’s War” as Nikki Haley was governor and under her watch, highest domestic violence in the nation. See Post and Courier Pulitzer Prize winner ‘Til Death Us Do Part’ for those receipt’s.
In other words...insidious cruelty is the point
Greg, You inserted some appropriate film references into this post. Baldwin’s ABCs of Always Be Closing is how a grifter survives. Everyone is a mark. Your relatives, business associates, friends, encounters on the street - all potential marks. Put a grifter into the most influential job in the world, and what do you expect will happen? Theft is in the Trump family DNA. The former guy can not help himself. If something is not nailed down, he’ll take it. Give him a crowbar, and he’ll pry up nailed down objects and steal those too. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas can never get enough. They are entitled. They see themselves as oppressed people who are entitled to everything that they can carry away from any encounter. I can picture ole Clarence walking out of that last Senate confirmation hearing a minute or two following the vote making him a member of the SCOTUS with a slight smile on his face thinking that now for the rest of his life he can collect for the indignities he has suffered. He has a lifetime appointment to steal everything he can get. It’s a better job than being POTUS. No term limits and nô rules. Time to get even.
Who knew we really do have Kings and Queens. Go figure
It's really awful. Selfish, close-minded, short-sighted. A betrayal of so many things I can't even list them all.
Great as always Greg! I have a question about your guest on the 5/8 Friday night Shiree I think was her name. She mentioned that CT was of Gullah descent as a way of explaining Clarence’s behavior/lifestyle. Can you elaborate on this topic or maybe have her on your podcast to talk/clarify her thoughts on CT?
Thanks, Christine. We did discuss it on the podcast I did with her last year, I believe. Unless my memory is foggy and we talked about it after we hit stop on the record button. She went into it in greater detail on the Afterhours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svJ4NZCJwf0&t=2s
Fogarty's "The Old Man Is Down the Road." Looks to me like the SC has survived the stench, so let them eat cake. We're supposed to believe he has no idea how those silly little ole disclosure forms are supposed to work, and his "advisor" said not to worry his pretty little head about those pressies from his admirers, but he's capable and qualified to get up in your uterus and pronounce judgement? Yeah, alrighty then. Where's Merrick Garland, oh he's super busy chasing 2 Chinese spies in a fake NY police station, I feel so much safer don't you? Durbin is pussy footing around waiting for Roberts to "investigate" his own mess, how will that work out I wonder? Oh and I refuse to offer him any honorific title, I just call him L.D. Silver.
To be fair, there are limits on what the Senate can do, I believe. Because of DiFi's absence, I read, they don't have the votes to have a real investigation. If CT broke the law -- and it appears that he did -- the DOJ should indict him. But I suspect that will never happen, not on MG's watch.
Well crafted piece Greg, one that many of us share sentiment with, you’ve laid it out perfectly!
The evil fuckery imposed upon “We the People” by wealth, greed, injustice and corporate corruption is nothing new in America. We’re all marks in a world chalk full of mountebanks.
CT, and his cadger wife Ginni, are notable, in a long line of pharisaic grifters. Where is Justice Roberts voice on his highest court of criminals? Today’s Supreme Court, where words substitute for thought, truth is replaced by injustice...hmm...
Thanks, Patrick.
Don't get me started on Roberts. What a sad disappointment that guy turned out to be.
Beg to differ. Any piece about this heinous and brazen violation of ethics and public trust that invokes Cab Calloway, Bojack Horseman, and Breakfast at Tiffany's is in fact lol-funny., at least in part as a release. Because otherwise our inability to hold these traitorous modern-day robber barons accountable could lead to our taking to the streets...
Ha! Thank you, Sue.
Bravo, Greg Olear.
Second that!
Thanks!
Thanks!
Always look forward to the Tuesday Olear perspective on all the craziness of these times, bravo as usual!
Thanks, Julie!
To be very honest, I don't really care what Clarence and Ginni do with their time and their influential Nazi friends -- but for his position on the SCOTUS, of course. What infuriates me is the arrogance of it all. The idea that because he was INSTALLED on the Court that he is above all norms, laws, and let's face it, the "gentlemen's agreements" that have made this country run successfully for the most part, for almost 250 years. Now, and yes, this started in 2000 with the installation of GW by the SCOTUS to the presidency, it seems that many more people than I am comfortable with, have decided that their positions in government are there for their own benefit, and that doing the People's business is frequently an after-thought.
When someone, ANYONE, calls them out, the reaction is always, "Who? Me? I would never do such a thing! What you've accused me of is beyond the pale! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!" And as predictable as that sentiment is, it's also almost always a lie. People think, and Republicans especially, that their lives are such a mystery to the rest of us. That if they "perform" their roles to the best of their ability, that we'll all buy their bullshit like their true believers do. Ginni's testimony, UNDER OATH, that she and Clarence don't speak of SCOTUS things in the house, IRONCLAD RULE, don't you know, is not only laughable, but also a lie on more levels than there are of Hell. Her arrogance and lying, hypocritical, bigoted views are evident in almost everything she chooses to involve herself in, AND every little footnote in Court decisions coming from Clarence's hands. Not to say that Clarence himself doesn't share the same views, but I've always had the impression that he doesn't really write his own script. He just parrots the play that Ginni directs.
Then a tide turns and suddenly he's all but called on the carpet for the omissions on his financial disclosure forms and tries some self-serious bullshit about the gifts being "personal hospitality" or some such nonsense, and then seems INCREDIBLY put out that he has to go back and "correct" them. It's the arrogance of a king, which we're NOT supposed to have here, and the fact that anyone in the world still has them is ridiculous. Without his SCOTUS position, Clarence is a low-level attorney at best, and without Clarence, Ginni is a right-wing nut screeching into the wilderness. They don't seem to realize that, and there are obviously too few people in their lives to remind them. Yes, dears, we KNOW who you are!
I agree with every word of this, Steve...EXCEPT for the part about her being under oath. She was NOT under oath. That was a condition of her appearance. It drives Gal Suburban nuts.
Really? Wow, not that it would matter to the likes of her, but wow! I'm with Gal.
They are laughing their “clad in gold” arses off at all of us. They are top of the list of who I would love to see brought down a peg or two…or just crashed to earth with a vengeance
Amen.
I grew up assuming that people in positions of great authority—e.g., presidents and Supreme Court justices—were people of integrity and high standards. I wonder how this country has seemingly devolved into the situations we’re currently experiencing. Maybe it’s a combination of my earlier naïveté (it was always worse than I supposed) and the Trumpian influence to let one’s ‘corrupt flag’ fly. My favorite recent meme is “Things aren’t getting worse; they’re getting uncovered.” Maybe I can find solace in that.
Me too. At the very least, one likes to imagine that the people in power are at least qualified to do their jobs. Trump blew up that right quick. CT is not just corrupt; he's also a bad justice, devoid of empathy or original thought.
They have us all by the short hairs now...All is out in the open,and failure to act,is screaming into the void😱
I hope something comes of this, but I don't know. It doesn't seem to have the traction it should.
Will share with "Required Reading"