I don’t know about you, but this makes me angry. Clarence Thomas, the most conservative justice of all the Supremes and largest defender of the idiotic Constitutional philosophy of “originalism”, has taken huge gifts from a Republican billionaire for decades without disclosing them. In a sane governance system, he would be impeached and removed ASAP. Private jets, yachts, 5+ star accommodations – unethical doesn’t even cover it.

Thomas is clearly bought and paid for. From the article:

Crow’s access to the justice extends to anyone the businessman chooses to invite along. Thomas’ frequent vacations at Topridge have brought him into contact with corporate executives and political activists.

During just one trip in July 2017, Thomas’ fellow guests included executives at Verizon and PricewaterhouseCoopers, major Republican donors and one of the leaders of the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business conservative think tank, according to records reviewed by ProPublica. The painting of Thomas at Topridge shows him in conversation with Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society leader regarded as an architect of the Supreme Court’s recent turn to the right.

In his statement to ProPublica, Crow said he is “unaware of any of our friends ever lobbying or seeking to influence Justice Thomas on any case, and I would never invite anyone who I believe had any intention of doing that.”

“These are gatherings of friends,” Crow said.

This is just wrong, but we will likely not do anything about it because Congress takes similar bribes. Arrrrgh! Makes me feel like this.

Shifting gears, here’s a great explanation of how generative transformers like ChatGPT work.