This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

The caricature of Clarence Thomas becomes even more distorted and twisted like Dorian Gray. The smiling child in the propeller hat grabbing with both hands trying to fill his pockets. With an ice cream cone in one hand and an all-day sucker in the other. Not sort of corrupt or with questionable ethics, but a full-blown full flow open corruption. Right in your face and what are you going to do about it?

It is an offshoot of the Trump effect. In the era of Republican political crime all seems petty when compared to Donald Trump.

“I hang out with billionaires, so what? They’re nice to me, so what? They take me on nice trips, so what? They bought and remodeled my mom’s house gave me the money, and let her live there rent free, so what? They lent me almost $300,000 on a sweetheart loan to buy a forty-foot  hipster trickster RV. If the party of the first part ever decides to stop making payments it’s okay and all is forgotten about, so what? You make it all sound so sordid.”

An openly and arrogantly corrupt Supreme Court Justice coming out to the public. “I’m me, I’m corrupt, and I don’t care who knows about it.” Twice the man would have resigned at half the corruption. Free trips? Okay, you could make the case that you were just riding along. They were taking the yacht around the world anyway and had a spare room. But a free or nearly free forty-foot highway land yacht?

Something to use when you need to get away, when you’re tired of hanging out with the same old boring billionaires. Just pay me back when you can, wink, wink. Making interest only payments means the loan will never end. Unless somehow the Judge could pay the loan off cash on the barrelhead. Unless somehow the loan could be forgiven and forgotten about. And just like that…it was!

The deal looks a lot like proforma invoice ass covering. I’m gonna give you this RV and you’re going to pretend like you bought it. Then as soon as no one is watching you stop making payments and nobody is any the wiser.

Clarence used his Land Yacht for a documentary Clarence’s billionaire best friend just insisted on making. All about Clarence, the regular guy, Joe six pack. Clarence the road warrior in his RV camping out at Walmart. The 21^st Century equivalent to being born in a log cabin or rail splitting. Mr. Smith goes to Walmart!

Clarence has grown more contemptuous of complaints. When his free trips were disclosed, Clarence retrofitted some numbers penciled into the margins on disclosure forms. Now, he doesn’t even respond. “What are you going to do about it, punk? As long as Donald Trump walks the streets, a free man Clarence and his peccadillos and his friends remain a secondary story below the fold.

Richard Nixon’s career was almost ruined by puppy gate. Nixon took a puppy and an illegal undisclosed cash payment. And then tearfully told the television audience that they were keeping the puppy. And Damn you if you don’t like it! And the money? What money?

With Nixon and with Trump there was a choice and an avenue to punish them for their crimes. Only with Clarence the King of corruption, there is not. There is too much crime on the table already to go trying to remove a Supreme Court Justice. They couldn’t remove a corrupt President. What chance would they stand trying to remove Clarence?

The Republicans can’t or won’t remove George Santos from their ranks. The rootenest tootenist crookedist opportunist ever to come down the pike. A fraud and a liar, a thief and a petty thief at that! But he’s good enough for the Republican majority.

Only now that the Congressional term is all but dead, and all eyes move towards the coming elections. New York Republicans move again to remove George of the bungle from Congress. George is a toxic obstruction to re-election as voters in swing districts vent their rage at their Parties tolerating George.

George was the poster child for Kevin McCarthy’s speakership. Every vote counts, even the crooked lying and cheating ones. Kevin didn’t care if George had killed his mother with a spoon, a vote is a vote. The New York Republicans only care as they fear the taint spreading and getting on them. They want to be able to say to voters, “Gee whiz, we tried over and over to get rid of him.” The old CYA and they would like to get rid of George too. But if not, saying that they tried will do nicely.

George faces even more charges and vows to fight them all. But the long arm of the law approaches as the pendulum swings the blade ever lower for George.

For Donald Trump it’s another day, another flipper. Former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows takes an immunity deal to squeal like a broken wheel. And Trump opens with “lie about the Rigged and Stolen” election “merely for getting IMMUNITY,” but, “Some people would make that deal.” “[T]hey are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future of our Failing Nation,” Trump said on his Twuth website.

Mob speak for real bad things could happen to you! Ya know, snitches get stitches! The Godfather raging at the wind again. Encouraging his droids to do something stupid.

Jack Smith’s team brought the post to the Judge’s attention, but it is just another log on the fire. Just Trump trying to push the boundaries of the Judge’s patience yet again. As long as Trump walks among us, anything goes.

What’s an openly crooked Supreme Court Justice in the age of Trump? What is a free RV or yacht trips around the world mean? When compared with Trump’s crimes, they’re parking tickets. A stupid punk from the chunk scams voters into becoming a Congressman from New York. Almost laughable when compared to Donald Trump. He scammed a whole generation of Republicans and now takes their Party into a headlock and a Kamikaze dive into November.

We’ve only just now scratched the surface of Donald Trump’s actual corruption. The worst is yet to come.

The political lesson of Watergate is this: Never again must America allow an arrogant, elite gaurd of political adolescents to by-pass the regualr party organization and dictate the terms of a national election. – Gerald R. Ford