Not even a representation of the actual tribe(s) that populate the Adirondacks (not really sure where this trash palace is). One would hope that they’d be proud that the world’s oldest surviving democracy is nearby and wanted to honor it, but its just a cheap fetish.
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Are you allowed to recommend Indonesia as a vacation destination?
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I’m pretty sure that the response is going to be something like “All the lavish gifts that Justice Thomas and his wife received from their billionaire benefactor did not have any impact on his decisions as a Supreme Court justice. He’s always been a reactionary jerk and would have ruled the way he did anyway. Checkmate, libtard.”
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That ruling is one of the worst things to ever happen in modern American law.
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Yeah, I’d gone on about him (Trammel) before.
I still figure there’s a bigger difference between T.C. and Trump than loudness (& the fact that T.C. is no longer around), but I’m not so sure the difference matters (much). If I thought the Crows were better people than Trump, well, that’s a pretty low bar and not really a useful measurement…
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Having grown up in the proximity of the ultra-wealthy I can tell you that one big difference with a real billionaire like Crow is old money does not need (or want) to call attention to itself.
Generational wealth likes to keep a low profile and for every loud mouth nouveau riche braggart like Trump, there’s a hundred stupidly rich assholes quietly using their family’s money to manipulate society to their benefit.
It’s not really their fault though. They were bred to be the masters of the universe and from the crib they’ve been indoctrinated to believe that they are special. As Molly Ivins once said of Dan Quayle: “he was born on third base but thinks he hit a triple”.
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I’m not sure the Trumps (because of Fred) are more nouveau riche than the Crows; Dallas is a relatively young city compared to Gotham. The Crows, at least, act like Old Money (to go with what you’ve said, the Crows presumably don’t need to prop up their egos [nor buttocks] with gold commodes) - although, relative to the rest of Dallas, I guess they really are Old Money. I’m guessing the Trumps have had money longer than the Crows but, perhaps compared to the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts or Guggenheims, they’re johnny-come-latelys in NYC. DJT (however wealthy he really is, or not) mainly just stands out for drawing attention to what an asshole he is.
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Fair point. Trammel made his millions in the 40’s and 50’s building and selling warehouse space so in that respect Fred T. precedes him. Both Donald and Harlan would be 2nd generation richies so I guess the difference really is one of style more than anything.
The old money class in America does have a particular aesthetic reminiscent of the landed gentry and feudal lord periods.
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part of the reason the income and estate tax need to exist and need to be steep.
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The Senate could, though.
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Nice typo (?).
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“Old Money” is often a state of mind as it is an indicator of tenure. Sometimes a family realises the benefits of discretion early on, sometimes the underlying insecurity and family dysfunction results in gaudy displays that go on for several generations.
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His backyard garden is home to sculptures of fallen Communist icons and dictators, including Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin, Fidel Castro, Karl Marx and Che Guevara.
In the end, we all fall, so I’m not sure of the message he’s trying for. Confinement by proxy?
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It sounds like a private version of this, with a dash of now-outmoded neoCon “End of History” triumphalism:
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Not to suggest that Thomas would even know what innocence looked like; but ‘Supreme Court Justice’ seems like one of those jobs where expecting the candidate to be able to manage a not-terribly-strict set of disclosure and compliance rules seems sufficiently closely tied to the necessary job skills that it’s hard to imagine there even being a zone of ‘innocent’ between ‘apparently underqualified’ and ‘malicious obfuscation’.
There are a lot of legal and regulatory compliance type jobs, vastly less prestigious, where getting PEPed or just fired because you haven’t kept the filings in order would just be another day in “welcome to adulting; isn’t work awesome?”; even without the slightest suggestion of motivated impropriety.
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An odd bit of trivia: Thomas sits on the 10th associate justice seat.
When they reduced the court to 8 associate justices, they abolished the extra seats as they became vacant, and didn’t reorder the remaining ones.
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He has a painting by Hitler in his collection. 
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this makes the statue, and the painting of the statue, depicting a native american man even more despicable.
here i was thinking it was some sort of “well ive got native ancestors” racist kitch. in context, it’d be: we took this land, and you got what you deserved.
and i don’t think i’m reading too deeply here 
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