Oliver made the proposal on Sunday’s episode of his HBO show Last Week Tonight, saying the supreme court justice had 30 days to accept or it would expire.
The British-born comedian’s offer came after a steady drumbeat of media investigations in the previous several months established that Thomas failed to disclose that political benefactors bought him lavish vacation travel and real estate for his mother. Thomas also failed to disclose – as required – that he allowed school fees for a family member to be paid off and had been provided a loan to buy a luxury motor coach, all after openly complaining about the need to raise supreme court justices’ salaries.
As a result, Thomas’s impartiality came into question after he sided with the contentious ruling that eliminated the federal abortion rights once provided by the Roe v Wade case.
He also recently listened to arguments over whether Donald Trump can be removed from states’ ballots in the presidential election after the former president’s supporters – whom he told to “fight like hell” – staged the January 6 attack at the US Capitol in Washington DC. Thomas resisted pressure to recuse himself from such matters, even though his wife, Ginni Thomas, is a conservative political activist who has endorsed false claims from Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden was stolen from him.
Associate Supreme Court Justice annual salary: $285,400
So if he turns it down, he either really likes being a judge (he doesn’t act like it) or he’s got a financial incentive beyond his salary to stay.
And I’m guessing he’ll turn it down.
We’re stuck with him till 2034 at least, he had this to say following his confirmation:
“The liberals made my life miserable for 43 years,” a former clerk renmembered Thomas who was 43 years old when confirmed saying, according to The New York Times. “And I’m going to make their lives miserable for 43 years.”
Yes, but he also lies all the time, so I wouldn’t exactly take than on face value.
I wonder what ways he thinks liberals made his life miserable. Honestly sounds like this idiot doesn’t even know what the word ‘liberal’ means.
He didn’t like people thinking he got into law school etc because he was black. He fervently hates affirmative action.
He hates it because he’s literally one of the people whom affirmative action helped put him in a position he is totally unqualified for (Supreme Court Justice).
His evidence that it is bad and doesn’t work is… himself.
What was that thing about conservatives and projection… Oh yeah: “It’s always projection.”
What’s funny is the only people who think he got in that way are conservatives lol.
Maybe initially only conservatives thought that, but as a not-conservative I’ve got to admit that the way he’s been acting is making a more and more compelling case for it.
I dunno. Oliver has guaranteed him a cool $1mil per year, until either Thomas or John dies (out of his own pocket no less!!), AND thrown in a brand new, top of the line Prevost Marathon motor coach.
It’s a mouth-watering deal.
Which he will turn down. If you watch the episode you’ll see all the perks he enjoys from being who he is. Which of course he’d stop being invited to, if he retired from the position.
True (and I watched the episode), but it doesn’t take away from the fact it is a sweet deal. I bet you Thomas considers it, even if he chooses not to take it.
It was scary seeing the stark difference between when he was begging his legislative colleagues that they need to raise their pay and his more recent interviews about how they are paid.
It’s clear as day that even though he isn’t getting paid more, he’s getting paid plenty.
The funny thing was that I almost couldn’t get a security clearance because I had so much debt in my early career days. The fact that there is zero oversight over the Supreme Court is just baffling.
Yup.
Rules for thee, not for me. Maybe that should become part of the swearing in oath so they can be honest at least once.
Conservatives would counter 10M to stay on the court and consider it a deal.
At least it would make the point of whomever pays more gets to own the judges completely moot.
Third option: he turns it down because he likes STIGGINIT too much.
What’s funny is, NPR did an interview with a guy who wrote a book on Thomas, and one of the things he points out is how much Thomas hates affirmative action because of a deep-seated insecurity about his own accomplishments.
Which becomes the ultimate irony: the only reason Thomas is on SCOTUS is because Republicans wanted a black man to replace Thurgood Marshall, but without all the pesky “morals” and “ethics.” In other words, he obtained the pinnacle of his career… Because of his skin color.
No wonder he hates himself.
I truly believe Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks is the best portrayal of Thomas anyone has done.
Even if he decided it was a good deal, if he cares about the legacy of his past decisions at least seeming legitimate, he has to turn it down. We all know he’s for sale, but he loses deniability if he straight up sells out.
if he was concerned with anything he’s done seeming legitimate, He probably wouldnt have taken all the bribes and shit that we know of thus far.
Should have offered 100 million. You’re right. He won’t sell out his legacy for a million, but I bet he would for 100.
He already sold out his legacy ffs
He sold his “legacy” for a luxury fishing trip.
That was Alito. Thomas sold his legacy for a bus.
I mean, fishing can be a really great time.
Somehow I don’t think John Oliver can quite afford to straight up offer someone 100 million dollars.
But this is the thing that’s dangerous about this otherwise hilarious premise.
If you can pay judges to leave so you can stack the court with your people… The court is even more fucked.
I have a good feeling it’s also illegal. How is this not a bribe to a political figure?
I’d guess the shows lawyers looked into this.
Putin has deep pockets.
Don’t even need to sell yourself to foreign actors. There’s plenty of cash floating around the Microsofts, Eli Lillys, Berkshire Hathaways, Proctor & Gambles, et al.
You can take all the “lobbying” you want and remain a Faithful Patriotic Americantm
And you think that’s all the money he’s getting?
That was my point. Turning it down either means he just loves judging so much that he’s willing to do it until he dies or he has a financial incentive worth more than a million dollars a year.
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We don’t deserve John Oliver. He is too good and pure.
I’m convinced that Stewart retired cause Oliver stole the source of his power when he left TDS to go to HBO.
I’d agree but. Stewart had a much harder job multiple days of the week imo. Oliver gets a week to really write gold. So Stewart still goated imo. Or his writing team was lol
Oliver’s team can spend months researching and writing individual episodes. They don’t cram those main segments into a single week of writing.
Yup very very true. Dunno why I didn’t think through that lense earlier. 🤔
Then how do you explain his return to TDS?
Stewart can only do Mondays because that’s when he can borrow the funny stone
Oliver uses its power on sunday, then sleeps.
Stewart sneaks in to steal a fragment of it before the HBO attack drones catch him. Hence only on mondays, cause he expends the energy before tuesday and cant get more until the next sunday
It was either that or run for office and Stewart would apparently rather die than accept the biggest landslide victory of our time.
It’s actually terrifying how amazing he’d be as an ideal president, he’s a man who knows how to put forward a best face for an executive team specialized in different areas of preference and expertise, and he knows how to spot good talent too, that’s literally the two most important things a president needs to be good at, everything else is set dressing as long as you know how to spot folks for your team that know their shit, and know how to translate that shit to a lay-audience.
Obama got astonishingly little done, but the guy knew how to make a big deal out of what he did get done, he rode Obamacare and killing Bin Laden like he’d been retiring bulls and broncos his whole damn life! Which he kinda had to because 2010 happened.
Stewart wouldn’t run for office.
You ever see the back of a $20 bill…on weed?
Could you elaborate on this cause I’ve been sitting here for 5 minutes trying to figure it out and it’s actually going to keep me awake.
I’m just annoyed HBOMax is now delaying pushing John Oliver’s segments to YouTube but I guess it was inevitable…
Ah that’s why it didn’t show up yet. Enshittyfication.
BitTorrent’s pretty good. YouTube kind of sucks a lot
Fuck YouTube. Who cares? That platform needs to go. Hopefully more people do this.
EDIT: I wonder how many of the people giving me all these the pointless down arrows are the same ones that complain every time a news article shows how shitty YouTube is to its patrons.
What’s the alternative that actually has content?
Piracy.
How is piracy a substitute for YouTube?
if youtube is how you used to watch john oliver, and now it’s not available next day, i know where it is available, and not just the “main story tonight”.
But they are the ones with the content so how does piracy help somebody, would have to put it up on a public platform first.
ask this question in a forum that won’t delete the answers
It doesn’t matter.
So you’re just whining, got it
How’s this whining? YouTube sucks. There doesn’t need to be an alternative for people to leave. Just like Twitter. It’s operated by people that demonstrably don’t care about content creators and in fact- have provenly screwed them over time and again as evidenced in the countless tech articles about them shared here and elsewhere….
But by all means, don’t let me get in the way of a collective Stockholm syndrome
Stockholm syndrome isnt real my guy, some cops made it up to hand wave why captives called them out for risking their lives more than the kidnappers had.
Kinda like how youre hand waving people clearly telling you that a shit service still fulfills a service, and not having alternative examples to pivot to means people who need the service filled will use shit service over no service.
pushing to YouTube is better than not pushing to YouTube.
I’m stealing this joke from someone I saw on bluesky or Masto (I forget), but:
Why would he take a pay cut?
Thomas is just going to use this to negotiate better pay from his existing benefactors…
That is fine too. Better be more expensive for them.
However, I’m rather inclined to suspect that they have enough “blackmail” over the course of his life’s proclivity (including some before he even became a judge) hence money is probably not going to sway him that much.
This expense probably doesn’t even register on their radars.
The hero we want and need. Bless you John Oliver!
I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t take it.
- It’s likely a bigger bribe than he’s already getting.
- He’s old and probably tired of working.
- it’s an election season and republicans will just stall any new appointments to replace him until after the election.
Republicans are not in charge of the Senate.
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The Democrats will pretend their hands are tied and beg maga to allow them to seat someone.
I’d love to see you show your work on this. Let’s see the receipts.
Dunno why the down votes. It’s sadly true. They won’t fight as hard as the republicans did to get where we are. And that’s why we are here.
Downvoted because it’s a dumb take that is unprovable, and drenched in opinionated rhetoric.
That’s definitely what they did last time. I don’t think we’ll get to see it, but I would hope they know there are new rules.
Is this the new narrative the bougeyviks have come up with to avoid accountability for Dobbs?
“Bigger bribe” is a joke
Yeah cash is great but power is its own thing and attracts money all by itself. Why sell a guaranteed legacy, a guaranteed mention in history books for a couple mil?
He doesn’t need paychecks from a comedian, he can get all the paychecks he wants. Quietly, from men in expensive clothes at nice resorts on vacations he’s not paying for. Followed by a wink and a nudge.
This priest is becoming especially troublesome.
Are you joking?
The money probably isn’t most of it. Thomas likes the power. He could make more in Congress through insider trading and bribes and then retire. Fucko likes putting his dick on the scale of history to hurt the kind of people he’s used to be: poor.
I don’t think he’ll take it, not because he doesn’t want to, but he’s acutely aware that public confidence in the judicial system right now is at the lowest it has ever been. Accepting this deal would do even further damage to the image of the court’s impartiality and his own legacy. It would send a message to the nation that the US Supreme Court seats can be bought and have a price, even if they are technically not allowed to accept bribes or gifts for favorable rulings.
You should watch the episode. Thomas only cares about himself. He doesn’t care about the integrity of the court.
You should watch the episode.
I did watch the episode. Clarence Thomas might be a self-serving asshole, but he’s not stupid. Confidence in the judicial is so low that we are perhaps one or two steps away from just having people ignore their rulings. If he took this - and let’s be frank here and call it what it is - bribe, it would spell disaster for the integrity of the courts. The most overt and nationally televised quid-pro-quo exchange possibly ever.
I’m sure Thomas doesn’t want to retire with a big fat pension paid for by John Oliver if he’s not going to be able to enjoy it if the country falls apart because the last semi-functioning apparatus of government becomes as ineffective and flaccid as the executive or legislative is currently.
Power can be more addicting than money.
Even if this did top his current bribes, I can’t seem him walking away from the power.
Just fundraise like 100 mil to get trump out of the race. Totally worth it and hes gonna take it with both hands.
He’d take the money and stay in the race
Yeah. He’d just fight the suit in court for years. And then when ordered to repay her could and have lived off they interest if they didn’t somehow seize it into escrow.
You put it in an escrow account with the condition being that he drops out to get it.
Heres an idea. We give trump and others like elon literally all the money in the world, every single cent.
The economy would collapse in an instant and we can take of our own neighborhoods and communities without needing a money insensitive while the rich can drown in their valueless wealth.
/non-literal
This is very interesting. With all the crowd funding methods, would it be theoretically possible to put something like this together? Granted, the person has to accept, but imagine being able to pay a politician to just disappear.
If it were to actually happen, it’ll just open up a trend of people joining politics and being major asswipes with the sole intention that people buy them out
You speak as if this isn’t already happening. Rich corporations hire former US reps and regulators to be “lobbyists” for huge paychecks, but they aren’t really asked to do anything–the real job happens before the big paycheck while the rep is still in office greasing the wheels, knowing retirement will be easy street.
Meanwhile scoundrels at every level are being loud public fuckheads so they can make a big name and sell books, or merch. They’re getting paid too.
And these aren’t even the real monsters. The real monsters are the ones who aren’t doing it for money but for more political power.
Honestly, we should be so lucky as to have a way to buy the political fortunes of these pieces of shit before they have any political influence.
Good point
Yes, but Trump isn’t the only problem we’re facing. And a lot of the other problems have a path through the supreme court. Let’s do both.
I bet nations will also donate to the cause with millions. Fuck it, Ukraine could hand in all that money themselves and itll be worth it for them.
I didn’t realize the show was back. Outstanding work. The Trump-packed courts are the reason I don’t think the USA can be fixed during my lifetime and will only get worse.
Trump had nothing to do with Clarance Thomas, he’s been in since the 90s
Trump put 3 of his own on it tho.
I saw this last night! ROFL! John Oliver kept asking how it was legal for him to make the offer! lol. I kinda hope Justice Thomas takes the offer.
Contracts can do pretty much anything legal. This is offering money to not work and penalties for this round be repayment. So there isn’t a lot of risk involved at long as someone doesn’t try to screw to receiver through bad contractual language.
John was aiming more for the “I can bribe a SCOTUS judge to quit the court and not get into trouble???” part of it.
Cool, but the Republicans would just block any appointments until after the election, like they did with Garland.
Only the Senate gets to block appointments like that, and Democrats control the Senate.
Until the usual two republicans-but-only-not-in-name block it.
Maybe Biden could use the same method he used to send weapons to Israel without congressional approval
That’s called “selling”.
More like getting his hand caught in the cookie jar. Not quite stealing but sneaky just the same.
Not a chance. That recipient of dei benefits believes he is entitled to tell us what to do forever.
