Originally published at: Clarence Thomas borrowed $267,230 from rich friend to buy a luxury motorcoach, then stopped making payments | Boing Boing
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“Not reported as income,” The IRS just might be interested…
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Quite aside from the flagrant corruption aspect – which is, I admit, difficult to ignore – I like the way that Thomas’s fondness for vacationing in a motor home is presented as evidence that he’s just a regular guy. “See, he has an RV, just like us, and when he goes on vacation, he likes to go to RV parks in the States, and hang out with ordinary Americans.”
Meanwhile, the mf’er is tooling around the country in the equivalent of a private train car, and staying at special resorts dedicated to the owners of this particular species of mansion-on-wheels. They’re not gonna let you just roll up there in your piece of shit Winnebago, Jack, so that Clarence and Ginni can mingle with you and your squalling brats. That table is set for a different class of consumer, and you ain’t invited.
It’s the American equivalent of keeping sheep in the Petit Trianon: the ruling classes playing at being peasants. The difference is that if any of Marie Antoinette’s contemporaries had known what went down in the Hameau de la Reine, they wouldn’t have been under any illusion that she was somehow a woman of the people.
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That there’s an RV.
Wonder if he knows what to do when the shitter’s full?
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Send the repo man to pick up the RV. And the cops to pick up Clarence.
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I fear that it may be too late for tax penalties for this particular ill-gotten income. If the loan was forgiven in 2008 that’s well beyond how far back the IRS is typically allowed to audit, which is three years in most circumstances, sometimes six years. The statute of limitations may come into play as well.
That said, they should definitely severely audit his ass. Based on his pattern of behavior it’s 100% certain that he’s committed other, more recent tax crimes as well.
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If Bohemian Grove had an RV section, that’s where it would be parked. (They don’t, so Clarence and the boys have to “rough it” there.)
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He has people for that. Or maybe he just calls his friend Harlan Crow, and Harlan sends someone down to take care of it.
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I had an RV that was about 19 yrs old when I got it, then after some time, it was almost 30 when I let it go. I heard of RV parks that won’t allow rigs older than 10 years old. Damn, man, I thought.
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They exist, and I’m not a fan of places that interested in that kind of image. but in most cases they’re nothing special and don’t even try to enforce the rule. It’s just there for them to use if they decide they need to ask someone to leave.
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So sick of the blatant corruption. Clarence Thomas feels that he deserves to live a lifestyle his income simply cannot support, but he is in a position of power and there are plenty of very rich individuals who are happy to help him live above his means. Free house for his mom, free luxury motorhome, free private jet rides, free luxury yacht trips, free private school for nephew, etc. Need “walking around money”? The head of one of the most powerful conservative lobbying group will make a call to another conservative outfit and tell them to send $80,000 to your wife’s consulting firm. Didn’t report any of it. When questioned about the lack of disclosure, he said he didn’t understand the forms, which are LEGAL DOCUMENTS.
“Oh, but Mr. Allthemunnyz and Allthemunnyz, Inc. don’t have business before the court, so it’s okay.” No, it’s not. All these people are super wealthy and politically active and want the same thing: they want to be able to use their wealth in secret to influence elections and government policy to protect the wealth and power they have and to gain more. This covers things like taxation, government regulation, political donations, unions, employee rights, banking regulation, shareholder rights, etc. These people constantly have “business before the court.”
Thomas and his wife have been given millions in “gifts” over the past couple decades. Alito also has a private jet / luxury trip billionaire “friend” (Paul Singer). At a time when Brett Kavanaugh had 10K in the bank, he came up with a 250K down payment on $1.1M home and a $92K country club membership. He had over 60K in credit card debt and a loan against his 401k as a federal judge, and all debts were settled prior to his confirmation hearing. It’s like the conservatives on the bench get billionaire “sponsors” whose job it is to to keep the justices flush, and they do it right out in the open and everyone just shrugs their shoulders, and it sucks.
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The investigation by the Senate Finance Committee is being led by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR).
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Relax. Thomas says he asked a lawyer friend who said he didn’t have to repay it so he just kept it as a gift which his lawyer friend also said he didn’t have to report either… So basically he did nothing wrong!
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