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“He had recently started raising his young grandnephew, and Thomas’ wife was soliciting advice on how to handle the new expenses. The month before, the justice had borrowed $267,000 from a friend to buy a high-end RV.”
Here’s some free advice: If you’re struggling financially, don’t drop $267,000 on a high-end RV.
(You’re welcome!)
1 Timothy 6:10 "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains."
I am not being catty!!
Given that the net worth of half of Americans is $1 or less, it’s a bit tasteless to write about the financial woes of lawyers. A justice has to scrape by on a quarter of a million a year gubmint salary not counting perks. Complaining about actually being poor in the US, in contrast, is fair game.
Or purchase a half million dollar home within a year of being appointed and then complain about your salary. Then there is the Corvette as well.
He made at least two big purchases around the early ’90s: a Corvette and a house in the Virginia suburbs on 5 acres of land. When Thomas and his wife, Ginni, bought the home for $522,000 a year after he joined the court, they borrowed all but $8,000, …
It’s Congress’s fault for not paying him enough to enjoy the lifestyle to which he wishes to become accustomed.
Hell yes, Congress can bribe Uncle Thomas to go away.
So, Thomas has essentially ALWAYS been a paid vote on the Supreme Court of the United States. One who must be constantly pampered with vacations, favors, etc. And this is the guy who cried about “high tech lynchings”!
Stop the money machine and watch him scurry off. But don’t let him get away.
They have a whole well funded machine on their side. This is Rich vs Poor.
We have to be the rich if we’re going to survive. The rich of today need to go if America is going to survive.
Rather obvious what has changed: the spigot to big side-benefits from wealthy ‘benefactors’ has been tightened and Thomas is really upset about it; i.e., he never had to live on that salary and he sure as hell doesn’t want to start at this stage of the game.
But leaving the court? Bullshit: he’s not worth nearly as much to the oligarchs then; he’s just indulging in ‘salary’ negotiation.
When he was appointed to the court in 1991, he was 43 years old and had spent almost all his adult life working for the government. At the time, he still had student loans from law school, Thomas has said.
Interesting. From the June, 1995 Seattle Times article
As an undergraduate at Holy Cross College, Thomas received a scholarship set aside for racial minorities. He was admitted to Yale Law School in 1971 as part of an aggressive (and successful) affirmative-action program with a clear goal: 10 percent minority enrollment. Yale offered him generous financial aid.
This is the dumbest line ever in a TPM artilce:
Precisely what led so many people to offer Thomas money and other gifts remains an open question
.NO, it is not an open question. Access and influence with a sitting Supreme Court Justice is precisely what led so many people to offer Thomas (and Alito and Roberts’ wife who made millions "placing people in law firms with business before the Supreme Court) money and other gifts.
There is no question, open or otherwise, about it.
A welfare brat in adult form who thinks he has still exhibits rugged bootstraps. Some strange psychology there.
The rightwing is afraid of the Souter Effect, which happens when a conservative judge becomes more liberal over time and so unreliable as a SC legislator. So now the Federalist Society hatches rightwing zealots in test tubes and law schools and clerkships to get the true believers. And of course these many Billionaire-sponsored emolument$ are designed to keep the corrupt and easily swayed inside the RightWing Bubble. Thomas actually asked for it; the others are better at pretending it’s a non-issue.
So he made- in effect- a threat to quit and the Party made sure he got the financial support he needed. In the world of corruption, the extent to which the corrupt official is dependent on his graft, the more compromised he is in his official duties. The picture here is clear as day. Clarance is on the take and very beholden to his benefactors. QED.
Or $100,000 private school for some child you’ve just acquired. (This has “groomer” written all over it.)
PS: TPM - Always refer to him by his drag name: “Harlan ‘Anita Blackhawk’ Crow.”
Maybe we should treat the courts like the NCAA treats college football? Judges could get NIL funds or threaten to enter the transfer portal and go somewhere else to make the big bucks. Make Deion Sanders the Chief Justice and we’re good.
This article suggests the opposite, cut his salary to make them go away.
In fact, when thinking about it, that actually is something Congress could do to get Supreme Court Justices to resign. They have a lifetime appointment but Congress sets their salaries. Congress should just pass a law that says after 20 years of services a Supreme Court Justices salary reverts to the minimum wage.
I have to pull out the world’s smallest violin for this useless degenerate and his paymasters.
His salary is constitutionally guaranteed, and will continue to be paid for the remainder of his life per statute because Congress wisely decided that taking a pay cut would be a huge disincentive to retirement.
And this:
Is fucking appalling. Yale Law School needs to be nuked from orbit. It serves no purpose other than unrestrained wealth and power.
“party oF persONaL REsPoNsiBilITY.”