Thomas the Grifting Engine: Now With Even More Grifting

During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine. A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the premium suites at sporting events and sent their private jets to fetch him — including, on more than one occasion, an entire 737. It’s a stream of luxury that is both more extensive and from a wider circle than has been previously understood.

Like clockwork, Thomas’ leisure activities have been underwritten by benefactors who share the ideology that drives his jurisprudence. Their gifts include:

At least 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas; 26 private jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter; a dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, typically perched in the skybox; two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast.

Anybody who seriously believes that a billionaire would send his private 737 to ferry someone who isn't a Supreme Court justice and expect nothing in return has rocks for brains. Those two flights alone would have cost over a quarter-mil if he had chartered one.

Any other Federal judge would be in seriously hot water for accepting one luxury vacation, let alone thirty-eight of them, along with private jet travel.

Or for "buying" a $267,000 RV with a "loan" from another rich asshole buddy.

But, as we know, the rules are different for the Holy and Sacred Nine.

Dead Brainwashed Old Guy

An armed Utah man accused of making violent threats against President Joe Biden was shot and killed by FBI agents hours before the president landed in the state Wednesday, authorities said.

Special agents were trying to serve a warrant on the home of Craig Deleeuw Robertson in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, when the shooting happened at 6:15 a.m., the FBI said in a statement.
...
Robertson posted online Monday that he had heard Biden was coming to Utah and he was planning to dig out a camouflage suit and begin “cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle,” a post that came after months of graphic online threats against several public figures, according to court documents. Robertson referred to himself as a “MAGA Trumper,” a reference to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, and also posted threats against top law enforcement officials overseeing court cases against Trump.
...
The attack comes as Republicans, who have traditionally touted themselves as the party of law and order, have escalated their attacks on law enforcement and especially the FBI. Trump has relentlessly attacked the agency, even though it is led by someone he appointed, Christopher Wray. Wray himself has warned of the dangers of recent rhetoric. Some officials have become increasingly alarmed as the former president has escalated his attacks on the FBI, Attorney General Merrick Garland and the local and federal prosecutors who have filed three separate criminal cases against him in recent months.

My guess is that when the FBI knocked on his door, that he answered it with a gun in his hand and things went sideways from there. The Feebies are a little sensitive to the danger of serving warrants.

The TOFF's lies, as ambplified by the Right Wing Noise Machine, have been essentially brainwashing people. It's the Big Bamboozle, to use Carl Sagan's terminology. As he put it:

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

The TOFF lied and people died. Many more have gone, are going, and will go to prison because they believed his lies. More people are going to die because of his brainwashing and bamboozling his supporters.

The Dumbest Man in the Senate Keeps Running His Mouth

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said Monday he did not think Ukraine could win the war against Russia and compared Ukraine’s efforts to a junior high team trying to defeat a college team in a hypothetical sports match.

In an interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on Monday night, Tuberville touted his record voting against funding for Ukraine and said that, while he supported the country’s efforts over Russia, he thought Ukraine was outmatched and that no amount of funding would change that.

Right. He's for Ukraine, but he won't do anything to help. That means that, in effect, he supports Russia.

He really should file a trademark application for "The Dumbest Man in the Senate", only because "Mr. Potato Head" is already taken. If Tuberville was smarter, I'd wonder what Putin has on him, or what he's getting out of screwing with our nation's defense as he has been doing. But he's probably too thick in the head to be anything but a useful idiot for the Russians.

Republican Fuckery Fails

Ohio voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected a Republican-backed measure that would have made it more difficult to change the state’s constitution, setting up a fall campaign that will become the nation’s latest referendum on abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nationwide protections last year.

The defeat of Issue 1 keeps in place a simple majority threshold for passing future constitutional amendments. It would have raised that to a 60% supermajority, which supporters said would protect the state’s foundational document from outside interest groups.

While abortion was not directly on the special election ballot, the result marks the latest setback for Republicans in a conservative-leaning state who favor imposing tough restrictions on the procedure. Ohio Republicans placed the question on the summer ballot in hopes of undercutting a citizen initiative voters will decide in November that seeks to enshrine abortion rights in the state.

The Republicans tried to pull a shitty and the voters of Ohio weren't having any of it. They not only tried to change the rules, they tried to do it via a special election in August, hoping for a low turnout. They tried to do this in violation of the rules they had the state adopt for August elections.

Ohio told them to go shit in their hats. Even a number of voters from the pro-forced-birth crowd wouldn't go along with this bit of bullshit.

A 60-40 win is a landslide.

International Cat Day

If you didn't get thee to a shelter and adopt a cat, dooo eeeet!

Or just give some extra love to your own cat.

The Cult of Frontier Fiber Internet

After watching a bunch of shows over the last few months on FreeVee, I am so, so so fed up with the commercial that makes it seem as though having fiber internet is a form of cult.

And as for the University of Southern New Hampshire? They can go eat a sackful of richards.

A Little Old Penny-Ante Pissant

Less than 24 hours after the US women’s national team suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of their longtime nemesis Sweden in the second round of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Donald Trump gloated about the team’s elimination on social media.

The former president, a longtime vocal critic of the team, specifically Megan Rapinoe, a blue-haired talisman and outspoken LGBTQ+ advocate who missed a crucial penalty during the final moments of the game, said that the team’s loss is “fully emblematic of what is happening to our great Nation under Crooked Joe Biden”.

What a no-class petty piece of work to gloat over a team's loss as though it's really any skin off his ass. And, judging from comments that I've deleted, his ardent, wet-brained supporters are just as petty.

But they're just doing what they're told, I gather. If Führer Knochensporne were to put on on his failing social media platform that the sky was green, they'd go around, telling people that the sky was green and they might even challenge to a fight those who disagreed with their cult leader, the Soviet Asset.

Charging These Down, Here

Yes, they are. They most assuredly are.

More Evidence that Russia is a Terrorist State

At least seven people have been killed in a Russian missile attack on residential buildings in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, officials say.

Two missiles hit the town - the second as rescuers were searching for victims of the first.
...
According to other Ukrainian officials, the second missile struck 40 minutes after the first, killing and wounding rescuers as they searched for survivors in the ruins of what Mr Zelensky described as an "ordinary residential building".

A second attack to kill first responders is a known tactic of terrorists such as Al Qaeda and the IRA. And, of course, the Russians.

If You Want Good Pasta Sauce, You'll Have to Make your Own

Campbell Soup is set to buy Sovos Brands, the maker of Rao’s pasta sauces.

In a Monday announcement, the two companies said they had entered an agreement for Campbell’s to acquire Sovos for $23 per share in cash — reflecting a total value of about $2.7 billion.

The managers and beancounters at Campbell's will start mucking around with it. They'll change one ingredient for a cheaper one after convincing themselves that the taste didn't change. Then they'll change another ingredient and another and end up adding high-fructose corn syrup to try to mask the taste of the changes changes.

Hell, they'll probably try wrapping jars of Prego with the Rao's label. Because when big companies buy small companies that make a notable product, nothing good happens for consumers.

ETA: Campbell's says they won't change the sauce. Yeah, sure they won't.

In a pig's eye.