In 2014, one of Texas billionaire Harlan Crow’s companies purchased a string of properties on a quiet residential street in Savannah, Georgia. It wasn’t a marquee acquisition for the real estate magnate, just an old single-story home and two vacant lots down the road. What made it noteworthy were the people on the other side of the deal: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his relatives.
...
The purchase put Crow in an unusual position: He now owned the house where the justice’s elderly mother was living. Soon after the sale was completed, contractors began work on tens of thousands of dollars of improvements on the two-bedroom, one-bathroom home, which looks out onto a patch of orange trees. The renovations included a carport, a repaired roof and a new fence and gates, according to city permit records and blueprints.
It’s unclear if Crow paid fair market value for the Thomas properties. Crow also bought several other properties on the street and paid significantly less than his deal with the Thomases. One example: In 2013, he bought a pair of properties on the same block — a vacant lot and a small house — for a total of $40,000.
So Thomas is, apparently, just another corrupt little fuckwad in a position where nobody is ever going to do anything about it. I doubt that he'll beindicted for failure to follow the disclosure laws. Presumably, he was not so foolish as to not report any capital gains on his taxes.
The only other remedy is to impeach his corrupt ass and remove him from the court, but you and I both know that's never going to happen. It is clear to everyone, by now, that the only people who believe that the Supremes are apolitical and only "call balls and strikes" are the nine people on the court itself. And I'll bet that, deep down, even they know that they are political hacks who mine legal precedent to justify the outcome they desire.
In that regard, they are no different from Hedley Lamarr:
Oxymoron ~ if the glove fits, convict. The whole system is illegitimate, from the top down ...
ReplyDeleteClarence may have reported his cap gains but it's likely that neither he nor Harlan reported the gifts and the taxes that go with them, unless Harlan reported them as business expenses.
ReplyDeleteSO they are going after Thomas like they are going after Trump. Unfair and unusual scrutiny to attempt to force him out so they can gain an advantage.
ReplyDelete"Crow said his company purchased the properties “at market rate based on many factors including the size, quality, and livability of the dwellings.”..."It’s unclear if Crow paid fair market value for the Thomas properties"...why not determine that before attacking???...Unless you are just throwing mud to see if you can make some stick.
Your side is showing their colors. The fact that you approve is even worse, as you used to have some integrity. Apparently that has been set aside in the interest of simply winning at all costs. Sad, really.
Yes, B, it is so, so unfair to insist that Republicans have to follow the same rules as the rest of us mere mortals.
ReplyDeleteIf your pet Justice wasn't such a shitheeled grifter, this wouldn't be an issue, now, would it?
If we are looking at patterns then it goes like this:
ReplyDelete1. Bush the Elder appointed Thomas with some aiding and abetting by Biden.
2. Bush the Lesser appointed Roberts.
3. Something predictive of the Republican party from a fellow forecaster with more distinction
Anne Kilkenny of Wasilla, Alaska, shared some thoughts on Gov. Sarah Palin in an e-mail to a few friends. But then they told a few people and they told a few people and so on and so on.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2008/sep/09/e-mail-heard-round-world/
She noted a pattern. Why it manifested itself when it did is a matter for conjecture.
Oh dear, B., like Trump eh? Maybe because Trump was corrupt too?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, on to Clarance…
1) Thomas disclosed gifts received until 2004, when a gift from Crow (Bible owned by Frederick Douglass) was noted, upon which time he stopped disclosing gifts to the extent only 2 have been reported since.
2) In 2014, Crow contributed over $500,000 to a Tea Party group founded by, Ginni Thomas…and paid her $120,000 salary.
3) Also in 2014, Crow bought a property from Thomas, his sister and his mother, for $131,363. Crow then spent significant money (at least $36,000) renovating the property, including adding a carport, etc. since the disclosure of real estate transactions over $1,000 is required, and Thomas owned 1/3 of the property, he was required to report it. The one loophole would only apply if he lived in the house, he did not.
4) In 2013, 2 lots on the same street, with a small house on them, were purchased by Crow for $40,000, suggesting Crow paid Thomas well over market value.
5) Thomas stopped listing specific addresses on his disclosure report, but the three properties were listed on his 2000’s disclosure reports with his total interest in those three properties worth “less than $15,000”, suggesting a market value of about $40,000-$45,000.
6) Thomas personally signed the sale paperwork inn2014, and had it notarized by an administrator at the Supreme Court.
7) Crow paid the property taxes, about $1,500 per year, every year since the purchase, on a home he now owned but allowed Thomas’s mother to live in rent free until at least 2020.
8) Ironically, a pride flag flys just down the street from Thomas’s former property…or maybe that explains things.
The thing is, for all of the outrage, Thomas the Grifting Engine is bulletproof.
ReplyDeleteDoJ isn't going to bring charges over his grifting.
The only other recourse is impeaching him, which isn't ever going to happen with Republicans, who have demonstrated, time after time, that their theme song is Parteitreue Über Alles.
Unfair and unusual scrutiny to attempt to force him out so they can gain an advantage.
ReplyDeleteIt’s called following the law.
But if you want to argue that Thomas shouldn’t have to follow the law, knock yourself out, tiger.
Dammit Eck! There you go, citing facts again.
ReplyDeleteDale
Dale,
ReplyDeleteI be confused, I haven't commented on the nominal corrupt rethugs... yet.
Thomas bulletproof, so was Capone... Criminals always screw up somewhere.
Eck!