The most powerful Republican in the country wasn't on the debate stage last week...and he wasn't with Tucker, either. He sits on the Supreme Court, and his wife is named Ginni.
This Democracy Labs "Follow-The-Money" map makes it easier to trace the money/trips/favors flowing to Clarence Thomas and other Supreme Court Justices. This map updated Aug 10th is the third version as I keep updating as new scandals are revealed. It includes ten billionaires and dark money groups corrupting the Supreme Court.
Your point about the Thomas’s power and influence seems pretty on target, although there is a good argument to be made for the primacy of the cabal of billionaire Plutocrats who have together funded all of the right-wing authoritarian infrastructure and sedition.
You're right about " crazy" & the energy it foments out there. Between ginni ( the clarence whisperer) & Clarence Thomas, starring in his own theatre performance, as what appears to be a mediocre justice at best, unless someone in the Democrat wing of sanity, rides in, in their white hat & finds a legal means to address this couple's greed fueled compromises & illegal behavior; it appears we're stuck with these two. That is unless one or both of them chokes on a twinkie or too much champagne drank in service to themselves, goes down the wrong pipe.
( But in the one area Clarence excels at, it is in doing his wealthy master's bidding & accepting their " tribute;" whether in the form of cash, homes for family members, round the world, or in their own " back yard" vacations..)
While Ginni appears to have gotten off scot free from ANY involvement in January 6th, she continues to spin her yarns & spew conspiracy theories & alternate facts, like a giddy " bell of the ball" in D.C., at any republican soiree that will have her.
In republican world, crazy & mediocre wins the day. Look at their maga roster of ill educated, antisocial, self serving legislators sitting in Congress. Talk about a circus with monkeys starring in the big top. I am ashamed Americans voted them into an office & we actually pay them for their dis-service to our nation.
I hate what ifs...but. What if the Democrats win a majority in both Houses of Congress as well as the White House in 2024; would they have the moxie to impeach Thomas? Is that a viable option?
For such an impeachment to be successful, 2/3rds of the Senate would need to vote to remove said official from office. That’s a super majority plus and the way things are going, retaining a majority in the next election cycle will be a push.
It would be easier to increase the number of justices and make his vote irrelevant. He might not have as many rich friends lavishing him with unreported gifts were that to happen.
Thomas is an interesting guy - funny how a sense of personal outrage over not being recognized by the top law firms as the genius he is when he first got out of Yale can change a guy fellow undergraduates remember as "almost a Black Panther" in his politics to the guy who fits the description of the term the field slaves had for scum like him - two words, the first being "House..."
Back in the day, when I was working, my own personal saying was "you can't teach a person common sense." Then it morphed into something akin to "you can't argue with cray cray." But the wisest way to put it comes straight out of old Chinese wisdom, "One cannot reason with mad dogs."
I have been convinced over, at least, the past three years that Clarence was in his early 80s. Now, I don't know where that came from, since he's 75 and yes, younger than Trump, who is not only 77, but morbidly obese at "215" pounds.
The best/worst thing about all of this, ALL OF THIS, is that our only weapon against it is our vote. We can talk and write about it until cows come home and go out again in the morning, but unless we're willing to act out a novel I read once about the assassination of a Supreme Court justice (I don't even remember why it was done now), or some other David Baldacci/John Grisham/Margaret Truman thriller, we're stuck with just our vote.
It seems that no matter what, we automatically "go high," because it's the right thing to do in a democracy. Personally, I will bitch and moan online with people, but I will not get down in the mud and LIE to make a political point. They will, and do, multiple times a day. Our fellow Americans are now an enemy to democracy. What do you do with that? The only thing we can: vote. And vote for Democrats.
This will take a long time, and I probably won't be around when it finally happens, but we have to start turning the tide now so that the Clarence Thomases of the world don't continue to get their way. Is it racist on my part to ask why Clarence seems to want to throw this country back to the times when "his kind" did not have a seat at the table? Should I NOT assume that because he is Black that he would err on the side of caution with respect to issues that would hurt the Black community? I try to be colorblind, but when glaring examples of racism come to the fore, like Clarence and the extremely odious Candace Owens, I can't help but to ask. Black Lives Matter, of course, but Clarence and Candace will be among the first to tell you that ALL lives matter and miss the mission statement of the whole organization, like rednecks in pick-up trucks with giant Trump flags attached. HOW do they sleep at night?
Meh, I'm rambling on again. VOTE! FOR! DEMOCRATS! It's becoming more and more clear that it's our only hope for democracy, despite the big six-foot high LIE posted on the Republican debate stage.
I thought that, but I think it was something more obscure, like Margaret Truman or even Scott Turow. Who knows? I read so damned much I can't remember anything. LOL
You are so right. The “right thing to do” keeps me from exploding on the arses in my orbit. The vote is our power and the “right”- wing nuts are busy every day with voter “integrity” crap that will strip us of that. For the right religious nuts to embrace racism, using a black man, is as twisted as it gets. As Jacqueline Valde said on Twitter (before Musk), “the religious right is neither.”
Well, Greg, seems the only thing us heathens can do is keep a Democrat in the WH and expand our Senate majority while we wait in the wings for our next opportunity to install another Supreme on the Court. Holding my breath for that. Anyone care to join me?
What can we do when so many people are brainwashed to believe what was written in that letter? They believe what they wrote. They discuss this with their friends, family, and children. Are their brains different from ours? Who's to blame - religion, fox news, lying politicians, their parents??? And how can it change?
They have a different "agenda" than we do, and somehow, they think it's right, and/or it's their version of partisan politics. It's hard to tell sometimes. They ALWAYS protect their own no matter what they do or don't do. We have a tendency to be critical of people on our side who don't measure up to the level we expect from them, as I think it should be. Sometimes that goes overboard, i.e. Al Franken. But we won't change them, "that I can tell you!" Agendas, protecting their own, and party before country will always be the way Republicans act. We can only continue to fight against it, so it doesn't get COMPLETELY out of control.
Something you said struck a chord with me - “They ALWAYS protect their own no matter what they do or don't do.” This is what organized religion does also. Case in point - Pedo Priests. It is so wrong to “protect” people who do despicable things. Hoping those protectors pay the price...
If you have Netflix, take a look at "Killer Ratings." It's in Portuguese but is a compelling 7-episode series that tells of an official in Brazil who basically had people killed, mainly drug traffickers, to be able to use these stories on his TV show that was very popular in Central Brazil. SO MANY PARALLELS with Trump et al, and happened in 2009-10. More people trying to protect their own AT ANY COST. The Church moved priests around like streetcars, thinking what, that another parish wouldn't have the same "temptations" for him? It's majorly disgraceful, but I'm sure they still do it because everybody in the Church thinks nobody is paying attention anymore, that everything is solved, and there's no more pedophile priests, which, sadly, is probably true because everyone has the attention span of a gnat. Just because you don't see the roaches doesn't mean they're not there.
Wow! That sounds interesting, I'll look for it on Netflix. I don't want to jinx the energy but I often find myself surprised that MAGA has not taken it to those extremes. They spew so much hate and rage that it just seems logical that they will start assassinating their perceived enemies. Which leads me to believe that maybe, just maybe, it's not really hate and rage that they are feeling but fear, pain and shame instead.
I've decided it's their fear that makes them hate. They fear change. They fear being a white minority by 2045. They fear not being able, and not willing to try to, keep up with the rest of what they call, "the elites." Maybe they've buried it deep, but at one time they would have known that their current state is untenable. Rage and hate never wins the day, at least not for long. That is shown all through history, but they seem to think that THEY will be the ones to disprove history. They found their leader in Trump, who in reality, wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire. He uses them to gain more power, and money. That's his entire use for them, and he probably, at some point, discovered that they were easily gaslit into believing ANYTHING he said. I still remember those giant signs at his rallies after the 2018 mid-terms when he was starting his run for 2020, "Promises Made • Promises Kept." NO ONE in his cult questioned that. He gave tax cuts to the rich, and some meager temporary tax cuts to the rest of us. That was ALL he'd done "for" his followers in his term in office. The biggest problem with that is if you're not able to find work, like a lot of his followers, tax cuts don't mean shit.
They may have started out with fear, pain and shame, but instead of trying to deal with that as a normal person in a SOCIETY would, they turned to violence, stemming from their hate for people that they perceived were keeping them down by doing better in life. There have been LOTS of assassination plots that luckily, have been foiled -- so far. But an assassination would not surprise me in the least. It's the kind of thing I've come to expect from that side of the political aisle. They can't get their way, so they start plotting to kill people that they think are the ones standing in their way. It's disgusting, and Trump needs to be brought to justice as, if nothing else, an example of what happens when people try to "rise up" against the People's government. That shit cannot stand, or we'll never be rid of this cancer.
“It’s hard to keep up with the interminable crazy and the energy that it has.”
Yep, GQP MAGA crazy makers sure drain you, which is exactly what they want. 🧘🏼 Breathe in, breathe out - and when about to give up, remember why you started. ✌🏻
OK, so he’s the most powerful person in the insane asylum. But for me to lose a lot of sleep over that I’d have to believe that evil is going to triumph over good. And is power based on untruths really power, or is it just manipulation? And can we the manipulated not fix the offending imbalance at the ballot box? If after the 2024 election the Republicans no longer hold the White House or the majority in either the Senate or the House, things will change.
Thanks, Greg, for talking about Thomas who I cannot stomach. I could care less what color of the rainbow he is. What I care about is trustworthiness, transparency, decency, fairness, and kindness. Clarence has none of these qualities. Quite frankly, it looks like the other 5 justices are also devoid of them, as well. We really have to back Sheldon Whitehouse’s Supreme Court Ethics bill wholeheartedly. I am waiting for Jack Smith’s investigation into GOP members of Congress who encouraged seditious acts against our sacred grounds. I feel strongly that Ginni Thomas will then be implicated as a major player. When that happens, Clarence will be hanging like a thread.
Well said, Greg! We need to get Sen. Seldon Whitehouse's SCOTUS ethics, recusal and transparency reform bill passed in the Senate, for starters. And then do everything we can to get out every last Democratic vote in 2024 to hold the Presidency, increase our majority in the Senate and reclaim the People's House from the very tenuous grip of the 'interminable crazies'. Then, we can realistically consider impeaching the corrupt 'justice' Thomas.
This Democracy Labs "Follow-The-Money" map makes it easier to trace the money/trips/favors flowing to Clarence Thomas and other Supreme Court Justices. This map updated Aug 10th is the third version as I keep updating as new scandals are revealed. It includes ten billionaires and dark money groups corrupting the Supreme Court.
You can click on any person for details on them. Click on the line connecting two people to understand the relationship between them. The level of corruption is REALLY bad... https://thedemlabs.org/2023/08/11/clarence-thomas-billionaires-koch-crow-sokol-huizenga-novelly-supreme-court-corruption-map/
Thank you!!
You're welcome.
This is really cool. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this interactive map of SCOTUS corruption. It is a great resource!
Your point about the Thomas’s power and influence seems pretty on target, although there is a good argument to be made for the primacy of the cabal of billionaire Plutocrats who have together funded all of the right-wing authoritarian infrastructure and sedition.
You're right about " crazy" & the energy it foments out there. Between ginni ( the clarence whisperer) & Clarence Thomas, starring in his own theatre performance, as what appears to be a mediocre justice at best, unless someone in the Democrat wing of sanity, rides in, in their white hat & finds a legal means to address this couple's greed fueled compromises & illegal behavior; it appears we're stuck with these two. That is unless one or both of them chokes on a twinkie or too much champagne drank in service to themselves, goes down the wrong pipe.
( But in the one area Clarence excels at, it is in doing his wealthy master's bidding & accepting their " tribute;" whether in the form of cash, homes for family members, round the world, or in their own " back yard" vacations..)
While Ginni appears to have gotten off scot free from ANY involvement in January 6th, she continues to spin her yarns & spew conspiracy theories & alternate facts, like a giddy " bell of the ball" in D.C., at any republican soiree that will have her.
In republican world, crazy & mediocre wins the day. Look at their maga roster of ill educated, antisocial, self serving legislators sitting in Congress. Talk about a circus with monkeys starring in the big top. I am ashamed Americans voted them into an office & we actually pay them for their dis-service to our nation.
I hate what ifs...but. What if the Democrats win a majority in both Houses of Congress as well as the White House in 2024; would they have the moxie to impeach Thomas? Is that a viable option?
For such an impeachment to be successful, 2/3rds of the Senate would need to vote to remove said official from office. That’s a super majority plus and the way things are going, retaining a majority in the next election cycle will be a push.
They'd have to have 66 Senators to do that. Ain't gonna happen in your lifetime.
Never say never, TC.
It would be easier to increase the number of justices and make his vote irrelevant. He might not have as many rich friends lavishing him with unreported gifts were that to happen.
Thomas is an interesting guy - funny how a sense of personal outrage over not being recognized by the top law firms as the genius he is when he first got out of Yale can change a guy fellow undergraduates remember as "almost a Black Panther" in his politics to the guy who fits the description of the term the field slaves had for scum like him - two words, the first being "House..."
Man, that is hard to believe, considering how “white” he tries to be now. Wonder if Ginni whitewashed him…
Back in the day, when I was working, my own personal saying was "you can't teach a person common sense." Then it morphed into something akin to "you can't argue with cray cray." But the wisest way to put it comes straight out of old Chinese wisdom, "One cannot reason with mad dogs."
The bigger they are, the harder they fall... (so they say)
I have been convinced over, at least, the past three years that Clarence was in his early 80s. Now, I don't know where that came from, since he's 75 and yes, younger than Trump, who is not only 77, but morbidly obese at "215" pounds.
The best/worst thing about all of this, ALL OF THIS, is that our only weapon against it is our vote. We can talk and write about it until cows come home and go out again in the morning, but unless we're willing to act out a novel I read once about the assassination of a Supreme Court justice (I don't even remember why it was done now), or some other David Baldacci/John Grisham/Margaret Truman thriller, we're stuck with just our vote.
It seems that no matter what, we automatically "go high," because it's the right thing to do in a democracy. Personally, I will bitch and moan online with people, but I will not get down in the mud and LIE to make a political point. They will, and do, multiple times a day. Our fellow Americans are now an enemy to democracy. What do you do with that? The only thing we can: vote. And vote for Democrats.
This will take a long time, and I probably won't be around when it finally happens, but we have to start turning the tide now so that the Clarence Thomases of the world don't continue to get their way. Is it racist on my part to ask why Clarence seems to want to throw this country back to the times when "his kind" did not have a seat at the table? Should I NOT assume that because he is Black that he would err on the side of caution with respect to issues that would hurt the Black community? I try to be colorblind, but when glaring examples of racism come to the fore, like Clarence and the extremely odious Candace Owens, I can't help but to ask. Black Lives Matter, of course, but Clarence and Candace will be among the first to tell you that ALL lives matter and miss the mission statement of the whole organization, like rednecks in pick-up trucks with giant Trump flags attached. HOW do they sleep at night?
Meh, I'm rambling on again. VOTE! FOR! DEMOCRATS! It's becoming more and more clear that it's our only hope for democracy, despite the big six-foot high LIE posted on the Republican debate stage.
The Pelican Brief by Grisham is the novel you are thinking of.
I thought that, but I think it was something more obscure, like Margaret Truman or even Scott Turow. Who knows? I read so damned much I can't remember anything. LOL
You are so right. The “right thing to do” keeps me from exploding on the arses in my orbit. The vote is our power and the “right”- wing nuts are busy every day with voter “integrity” crap that will strip us of that. For the right religious nuts to embrace racism, using a black man, is as twisted as it gets. As Jacqueline Valde said on Twitter (before Musk), “the religious right is neither.”
Well, Greg, seems the only thing us heathens can do is keep a Democrat in the WH and expand our Senate majority while we wait in the wings for our next opportunity to install another Supreme on the Court. Holding my breath for that. Anyone care to join me?
Risky business
Been holding mine since Biden’s and Specter’s disgusting questioning of Anita Hill!
Deepest apologies for the Fox News link, but the legitimate media doesn't seem to be jumping on this, and it was so apropos of today's column:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/over-100-former-clerks-justice-thomas-sign-open-letter-defending-his-integrity-independence?intcmp=tw_pols
Barf!🤢
What can we do when so many people are brainwashed to believe what was written in that letter? They believe what they wrote. They discuss this with their friends, family, and children. Are their brains different from ours? Who's to blame - religion, fox news, lying politicians, their parents??? And how can it change?
They have a different "agenda" than we do, and somehow, they think it's right, and/or it's their version of partisan politics. It's hard to tell sometimes. They ALWAYS protect their own no matter what they do or don't do. We have a tendency to be critical of people on our side who don't measure up to the level we expect from them, as I think it should be. Sometimes that goes overboard, i.e. Al Franken. But we won't change them, "that I can tell you!" Agendas, protecting their own, and party before country will always be the way Republicans act. We can only continue to fight against it, so it doesn't get COMPLETELY out of control.
Something you said struck a chord with me - “They ALWAYS protect their own no matter what they do or don't do.” This is what organized religion does also. Case in point - Pedo Priests. It is so wrong to “protect” people who do despicable things. Hoping those protectors pay the price...
If you have Netflix, take a look at "Killer Ratings." It's in Portuguese but is a compelling 7-episode series that tells of an official in Brazil who basically had people killed, mainly drug traffickers, to be able to use these stories on his TV show that was very popular in Central Brazil. SO MANY PARALLELS with Trump et al, and happened in 2009-10. More people trying to protect their own AT ANY COST. The Church moved priests around like streetcars, thinking what, that another parish wouldn't have the same "temptations" for him? It's majorly disgraceful, but I'm sure they still do it because everybody in the Church thinks nobody is paying attention anymore, that everything is solved, and there's no more pedophile priests, which, sadly, is probably true because everyone has the attention span of a gnat. Just because you don't see the roaches doesn't mean they're not there.
Wow! That sounds interesting, I'll look for it on Netflix. I don't want to jinx the energy but I often find myself surprised that MAGA has not taken it to those extremes. They spew so much hate and rage that it just seems logical that they will start assassinating their perceived enemies. Which leads me to believe that maybe, just maybe, it's not really hate and rage that they are feeling but fear, pain and shame instead.
I've decided it's their fear that makes them hate. They fear change. They fear being a white minority by 2045. They fear not being able, and not willing to try to, keep up with the rest of what they call, "the elites." Maybe they've buried it deep, but at one time they would have known that their current state is untenable. Rage and hate never wins the day, at least not for long. That is shown all through history, but they seem to think that THEY will be the ones to disprove history. They found their leader in Trump, who in reality, wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire. He uses them to gain more power, and money. That's his entire use for them, and he probably, at some point, discovered that they were easily gaslit into believing ANYTHING he said. I still remember those giant signs at his rallies after the 2018 mid-terms when he was starting his run for 2020, "Promises Made • Promises Kept." NO ONE in his cult questioned that. He gave tax cuts to the rich, and some meager temporary tax cuts to the rest of us. That was ALL he'd done "for" his followers in his term in office. The biggest problem with that is if you're not able to find work, like a lot of his followers, tax cuts don't mean shit.
They may have started out with fear, pain and shame, but instead of trying to deal with that as a normal person in a SOCIETY would, they turned to violence, stemming from their hate for people that they perceived were keeping them down by doing better in life. There have been LOTS of assassination plots that luckily, have been foiled -- so far. But an assassination would not surprise me in the least. It's the kind of thing I've come to expect from that side of the political aisle. They can't get their way, so they start plotting to kill people that they think are the ones standing in their way. It's disgusting, and Trump needs to be brought to justice as, if nothing else, an example of what happens when people try to "rise up" against the People's government. That shit cannot stand, or we'll never be rid of this cancer.
“It’s hard to keep up with the interminable crazy and the energy that it has.”
Yep, GQP MAGA crazy makers sure drain you, which is exactly what they want. 🧘🏼 Breathe in, breathe out - and when about to give up, remember why you started. ✌🏻
OK, so he’s the most powerful person in the insane asylum. But for me to lose a lot of sleep over that I’d have to believe that evil is going to triumph over good. And is power based on untruths really power, or is it just manipulation? And can we the manipulated not fix the offending imbalance at the ballot box? If after the 2024 election the Republicans no longer hold the White House or the majority in either the Senate or the House, things will change.
Thanks, Greg, for talking about Thomas who I cannot stomach. I could care less what color of the rainbow he is. What I care about is trustworthiness, transparency, decency, fairness, and kindness. Clarence has none of these qualities. Quite frankly, it looks like the other 5 justices are also devoid of them, as well. We really have to back Sheldon Whitehouse’s Supreme Court Ethics bill wholeheartedly. I am waiting for Jack Smith’s investigation into GOP members of Congress who encouraged seditious acts against our sacred grounds. I feel strongly that Ginni Thomas will then be implicated as a major player. When that happens, Clarence will be hanging like a thread.
Yes, Marlene! A light at the end of the tunnel....
🤞🏼🤞🏼
Thank you, Greg.
The *real* problem is lack of prosecution of the 100x more criminal GOP turds than 20 years ago. 😢
Well said, Greg! We need to get Sen. Seldon Whitehouse's SCOTUS ethics, recusal and transparency reform bill passed in the Senate, for starters. And then do everything we can to get out every last Democratic vote in 2024 to hold the Presidency, increase our majority in the Senate and reclaim the People's House from the very tenuous grip of the 'interminable crazies'. Then, we can realistically consider impeaching the corrupt 'justice' Thomas.
The Spoon Theory!!! LOL. What toads.