WEBVTT - Part Two: The Clarence Thomas Story 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:04.640 Yes, who of course I would suck Elon Musk for 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:07.720 the right amount of money, which is what six million 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:11.160 dollars or more? Miles, what number did you just throw out. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:13.200 I'm not gonna lie about what I said. I'll say 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:19.439 it again. I'll call bucks. Wow. No, definitely not. You 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:22.000 know why, because I'll turn it into a story. I'll 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.439 make money, Like on the back of that. I'm just 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:30.000 launching on the I Heart radio network in April. I 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:34.960 fucked Elon Musk. No money, A lot of money in 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:41.760 the world space x X Miles Gray and Elon Musk 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:46.080 a match made in hell. You really cornered me. See 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:47.640 you have me on the show just to get me 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.600 to say some ship like that as wild? Anyway, I 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:53.360 do it for It was not difficult, That's all I 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:55.760 got to say. I think I would throw out ten 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:58.200 million first, but I would go as low as six. 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:00.960 That's good, I think. I don't tell us tell him that, No, 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:02.840 I don't mean. I don't mean to like, you know, 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.039 cheap in it. I would realistically, I think for it 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:07.800 to really work for me, I'll probably do it for 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:14.319 like six fifty wow, Jesus, so like two car payments? Yeah, 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.080 or at least like a PS five and no that 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.840 is good. Yeah, PS five would be nice. Yeah if 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:22.440 he just what if he just shows up at your 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:27.720 house with a PS five and controller, Well then you 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.440 know what I'm telling Alexa to put on some smooth jazz. 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:33.400 There we go, smooth jazz that should move with with 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:37.280 Elon Musk. Oh, yeah it's me and uh you know, 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.800 uh David Sanborn. You see, I think I would try 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:43.640 because I'm younger than him, so it's probably he can't 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.520 tell the difference between me and a teenager. Um. I 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:51.240 would put on like like Austrian yodeling albums and try 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:53.240 to convince him it's what like the kids were into 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:56.160 these days. It's like everybody on Reddit loves these yodeling 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:58.600 albums Elon, and then try to see even get him 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.560 to tweet about like his favorite yodelers. I bet we 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:03.960 could do it like just running. So you want to 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:06.480 run an OP on him? Okay, I want to get 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:09.720 paid first, like payment payment is first, and then fucking 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.840 with him a little bit. Well, you gotta we have 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.040 to run an op on someone to show like the 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.040 veracity of our claims, like there's strength to the business model, 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:20.200 you know, where you can be like, this is actually 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:24.000 how our marketing works, Like we run ops on celebrities 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:29.000 and they unwittingly support your products. Yeah, so big yodeling, 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:31.280 get at me right if you want to get it 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:34.600 on the ground floor. If you're representing a yodeler, uh 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.280 and you want Elon Musk to tweet about them, I 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:42.359 probably can't make that happen. But I like really famous 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:45.240 like child who yodeled in Walmart. Like I feel like 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:48.520 Elon Musk would be like doubt, Oh yeah that kids 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.040 all that kids like forty three now and he's all 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.160 like his yodeling is all sucked up because his voice 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:57.040 change because oh yeah, because he went like he went 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.560 like hard right too. I think he's he's he's a 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:03.400 proud right now. Yeah. So what you're saying is Elon Musk, 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:08.880 we love him, I'm sure. Um. Well, welcome to Behind 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.160 the Bastards, the podcast that is three and a half 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:15.520 minutes in. Um we talk about bad people. This week 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:20.639 we're talking about Clarence Thomas. Um so, boy, how do 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:23.840 how do we get from there to hear um good stuff? 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:29.440 So in nineteen seventy one, Clarence Thomas enters Yale Law School. Um. 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.399 You know, he graduates from that that school he goes 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.960 to and fucking Wooster right. Um, and he's a pretty 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:38.400 for those years he's in Wooster, he's a pretty hardcore 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:44.160 like black nationalist activist. Um. But in nineteen seventy one 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.440 he enters Yale. He is one of twelve black students 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:51.640 on the entire campus, thanks to an affirmative action program 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.960 recently instituted in the school that mandated ten percent of 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:57.960 the class not be white kids. You will remember but 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.040 that it was in the nineteen sixties when Yale removed 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.360 their secret caps on Jewish students. So like Yale is 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:06.360 so I always say a little bit behind the curve 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:15.720 on integration. So yeah, this program helps him get into Yale. UM, 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:17.360 but it also makes clear the fact that he had 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.400 gotten into Yale through an affirmative action program makes him 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:23.359 feel as if he has a target on his back. Uh. Quote, 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:26.159 you had to prove yourself every day because the presumption 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:28.360 was that you were dumb and didn't deserve to be there. 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:30.599 He later added. As much as it had stung to 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.080 be told I'd done well in high school despite my race, 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:35.200 it was far worse to feel that I was now 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:38.880 at Yale because of it, um, Which yeah, man, that's 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:42.040 that's that's the whole thing. But also like, it wasn't 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:44.200 your lack of ability that would have kept you out 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:46.440 of Yale earlier. It was that somebody had to force 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:50.000 Yale admissions to accept people who weren't like right, Like, 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:52.920 that is the thing. It's not that you couldn't do Yale. 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:57.320 It's that Yale had to be forced to do. Yeah. Yeah, 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:01.320 but yeah. Anyway, Thomas has always been and a pretty 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.360 conservative guy by personality. Even when he was a radical, 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.960 it was kind of rooted in very traditional ideas he 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.120 had about the family and about gender roles. Um. He 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:15.080 remained religious as hell even after he left the Cemitary Seminary, 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.160 the Bill Gates Semen School. Uh. He felt discipline and 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.640 an authoritarian upbringing were important for kids to have. But 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:24.320 he was also a registered Democrat because his family was, 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.279 and because he supported the civil rights movement, because you know, 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.240 there weren't like that's what you did, right, Like, that's 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:33.960 what his family did. Like that was the only reasonable 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.040 option as he saw it. For a very long time. Um, 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:40.359 it was at Yale then that Clarence finally starts moving 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.159 away from politically aligning himself with liberals. He's never really 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:46.600 been a liberal, right, but he votes with them, and 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.200 like yeah, um, he starts to make that actual move 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.840 towards a conservative political party, uh, and towards conservative more 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.240 like more of an open embraced conservative ideology. While he's 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.479 at Yale, and I'm gonna quote again from the New Yorker. 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:03.000 Here at Yale, Thomas developed an understanding of racism that 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:06.600 he would never shake. Whites, Southern and northern, liberal and conservative, 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:10.320 rural and urban are racists. Racism, Thomas would tell students 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.279 at Mercer University in nineteen ninety three, has has complex 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:18.400 into a certain degree undiscoverable roots. Not knowing its beginning, 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:20.440 we can't know its end. The most that can be 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.280 hoped for is that whites be honest about it. Honesty 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:26.880 is demonstrated through crude statements of personal animus or intellectual 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:31.520 suggestions of racial inequality. Dishonesty is demonstrated through denial of 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.840 one's racism and sympathetic extensions of help. Dishonesty lulls black 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.280 people into a false sense of security, assuring them that 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:40.839 they are safe when they are not. One of Thomas's 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.159 favorite songs is the nineteen seventy one hit Smiling Faces, 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:48.640 sometimes by the Undisputed Truth. It's classic lyric Smiling Faces. 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:52.479 Smiling Faces tell lies resonates with his experience of northern 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.760 white liberals. Among the virtues of the Reagan administration, he 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:57.599 has said, was the fact that no one there was 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:02.599 smiling in your face. So wow, if we're taking Thomas's 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:05.320 experience on this, like what the way he describes it 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:08.560 is that he goes to seminary everyone there is super 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.120 racist and like conservative, and he hates that. But then 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:16.120 he goes to like fancy northern liberal towns and schools, 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.880 and everyone there is just as racist but pretends not 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:21.480 to be. And he decides, well, I guess I prefer 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:33.320 the unabashed racists. I mean this, there's no point there, right, Uh, 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:37.360 there's not no point there, no, not at all to 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.040 what he's saying. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, they're I mean, look 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:43.720 at just what we what we saw in with people 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.400 donning kenta cloth and taking a knee and for what 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:49.560 just to always come back and like, well, you know, 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:54.640 qualified immunity, let's not go too far anything. And you're like, well, 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.920 what was that? And again to his point a false 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:02.680 sense of security. Uh uh and we and we are 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.040 not we are, in facting the opposite of that. And 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:07.000 then on the other side of it, he's like, man, 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.200 these people, you know where the funk they're at. Yeah, 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:11.640 you know where all the Reagans people are coming from 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:14.560 because they are racist to ship. Yeah, and they don't 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:17.160 say ship because they they're racist and they know it, 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:21.360 they know the rules of racism. Yeah. Um. So in 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.280 the end, Yale winds up leaving a pretty harsh taste 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.680 in his mouth. His grades are We don't really know 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:30.840 exactly what his grades are, right, He has remained like 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.040 people will say that he was kind of a a 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.880 middle of the road student. We don't really know, because 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:41.440 his academic records remain sealed at his urging. Uh. Journalists 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:43.880 who spoke to his professors repeat the same story. He 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.080 was a pretty average student. Upon leaving Yale, he applied 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:49.240 to a number of high end law firms, but he 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:52.440 was not hired by any of them. Um. And this 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:54.560 is probably less a factor of his grades than the 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:56.679 fact that he was middle class and black. Right, he 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.719 doesn't have connections to these big money law firms that 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.440 he's trying to get jobs with, which is ultimately why 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:04.720 Yale people get hired. It's not just that they went 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:06.680 to Yale, and it's certainly not their grades. It's that 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.000 their dad is somebody who's connected to people who run 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:12.960 the law firm, or they make friends or whatever. Right Um. 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:15.880 Years later, Thomas would tell a law school class quote, 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:18.000 since my reason for going to law school in the 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.320 first place was to return to Savannah to assist in 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.360 righting the wrongs which I felt existed there throughout my childhood. 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:25.959 I can't say this was a high point. If anything, 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.840 I was steeped in frustration. And this is definitely a 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.400 thing where he's like lying, like hell, because over the 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:35.000 last couple of decades, since his emergence is a public figure, 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:37.880 Thomas has made a big deal about how he got 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.160 into law because he wanted to join the crusade for 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:42.360 civil rights and again like right wrongs that he'd seen 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:44.319 as a kid. This was a big part of the 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.320 pitch he made his grandfather Um. And this is again 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.960 very untrue because the one job Thomas was actually offered 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:55.559 right out of Yale was at a Savannah law term firm, 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:57.959 and he had spent the summer interning at this firm, 0:09:58.160 --> 0:09:59.880 and they did a lot of that kind of work, 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:04.760 and he turns the job down because it doesn't pay enough. Um. Now, 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.720 Clarence was ultimately willing to take a job that paid poorly, 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.760 but not one that would let him serve his community 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:15.280 in Savannah. Instead, he takes a low paid job with 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:20.120 Jack dan Forth, the Republican Attorney General of Missouri. Now 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.559 dan Fourth, he's this kind of thing that doesn't exist anymore. 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.480 He was like a liberal Republican and he was on 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:28.920 his own concerned with the fact that again he's the 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:31.439 Attorney General of Missouri. On his own, he's like, Wow, 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:33.640 this staff is too fucking white. We need to have 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:35.840 some people who are not white guys around here. So 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:38.040 he hires Clarence Thomas because he's like, I think, as 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.440 the a G we need to have like black lawyers 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:45.120 representing people too. Because it's probe Missouri, um, which is good. UM. 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.400 Thomas does not like this because it's smacks of affirmative action, 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.240 which he deeply resented, and because again he wants a 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.959 high paid legal career and this is not that um. 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:59.280 And you know, he is initially not really super enthused 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.680 by this offer, I either, but he eventually decides to 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:04.080 take it, and his friend Clarence Martin later told Jane 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:06.360 Mayer quote, by the time he went to Missouri, he 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:09.320 was very disillusioned. He didn't want the attorney general's job. 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.240 He never wanted to be part of the government, and 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:13.640 in fact, he resented it. He wanted to be this 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.520 great trial lawyer in private practice, but he lost his 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.360 self confidence after all the Atlanta firms turned him down. 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:24.360 So yeah, that's uh, that's the call that he makes 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.160 is to get his start in Republican politics with this 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:31.079 guy Dan Forth. Um. Now, because it's Missouri, he has 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:33.360 to pass the state bar to do it, which is like, 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:35.560 you know, you got to do an exam in every 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:38.280 state to be able to do law ship there, um 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:41.439 because lawyers. Yeah, yeah, it's a whole thing. Um. So 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.679 while he countered what you might hear on TikTok, apparently 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:49.080 that's not true. But now I know, you know, you 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:50.720 can't just do it in once. Yeah, you can't just 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:54.120 do it in one state. Miles your your state of 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:58.040 of of the District of Columbia law certificate that you 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:02.560 have printed out above your desk, um c O. M 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:09.360 b I A. Um, so yeah, he's got to spend 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:13.080 the summer like cramming to pass the bar exam in Missouri. 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:16.319 So he winds up crashing at the house of a St. 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.440 Louis in Double, a CP chairperson, while he crams all 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.200 summer for the exam. Um. At the end of the summer, 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:24.520 he tries to pay her and she told tells him 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:26.840 to quote, help someone who is in your position in 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:32.200 the future. Um, basically pay it forward. Yeah. So Thomas 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:35.600 joins the Dan fourth administration as a Conservative Democrat, but 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.319 in short order he starts to see how this low paid, 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.720 entry level position with the Republican Party might lead him 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:43.800 to the kind of clout and wealth that he sought. 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.080 The key would be remaking himself as a political conservative. 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.360 Cindy Faddis, who knew him when he worked for Dan fourth, 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.120 recalled he said that he thought he'd have an advantage 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:56.840 as a Republican. Thomas is said to have stated, if 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.480 I belonged to the Republican Party, I could go farther. 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.120 After that, the change was rather sudden and jarring, as 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:07.160 this quote from the book Strange Justice makes clear. Clarence Martin, 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.160 who visited Thomas and Missouri found the Transformation, and his 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:12.920 formerly liberal friend with whom he had worked only the 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:17.080 summer before, to be quite remarkable. Gone was Thomas's college 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.079 dorm room poster of Malcolm X, replaced by an oversized 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:22.880 poster of a Rules Royce. No longer dwelling on being 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:25.120 shut out of private practice, Thomas now had a new 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.199 avenue for his ambitions as a Republican. He told Martin 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.040 he planned a big future in politics. I remember him 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.320 sitting with his feet up on the desk smoking a cigar, 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.199 said Martin. I saw a change in Clarence. Then he said, 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:38.960 the Republicans are going places in the next ten years, 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.600 and I'm going to attach my wagon to their star. 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:46.240 Martin forgave Thomas's apparent ideological expedients. In many ways. He 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.080 was already conservative and his social views, Martin noted. And 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.920 he really admired dan Forth. I'd ask him, how can 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.559 you become a Republican? And he'd say, blacks need to 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:56.880 be on both sides, and these people are in power. 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.760 It was a matter of practicality, all right. So we've 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.120 got to the part where he became Darth Vader. He's 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:07.000 doing that he's going. And it's interesting because Dan fourth 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:09.440 is you could draw a line between Dan fourth and 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:14.319 his current position because Dan fourth is very anti abortion. UM. 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.480 But Dan fourth is also again a liberal Republican and 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.120 one of the weirdest things that we really don't have anymore, 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:23.760 he's ideologically consistent. So he is also an anti death 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.840 penalty crusader. So he's a Republican who is like really 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:33.520 violently against the death penalty and against a portion um, 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.760 which at least suggests that he's yeah, being consistent in 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.280 the things that he's claiming. UM. But yeah, this is like, 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:44.440 this is where Thomas gets his start in politics. Um. Now. 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.760 One of his colleagues at the Savannah law firm where 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.280 he had done his interning, a guy named Fletcher Farrington, 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:53.480 who later supported his nomination to the Supreme Court, insists 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.440 that Thomas was not a quote complete opportunist, but that 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:00.640 quote to some extent, his politics were shaped by his ratunities. 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:02.720 At the core of everything, then, is the fact that 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.600 Thomas's real goal, more than anything, was to attain a 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.800 position that gave him wealth and prestige. As Farrington put it, 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.080 his ambition was not to make a particular change in society, 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:14.720 but to go as far as he could go. And 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:16.600 I think that is something, you know, despite the fact 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:18.880 that his grandfather winds up disappointed in him for not 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:22.720 helping his community. Um, that's something that's very consistent with 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.200 the upbringing he has. Right, All that matters is the work. 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:27.840 All that matters is like getting the best position you 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.760 can and right, you need to move further than I 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.960 was able to write. Yeah, I mean he definitely is 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:37.320 his grandfather's son. Um. All right, you know what, now 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.640 I'm rooting for him again. Now you're back on board. 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:43.360 You're back on board, alright, c C. Well, we are 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:45.400 about to get to the Reagan administration, which I know 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:50.320 is your favorite period in American politics. My dad's explanation 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:52.600 why they were unhoused people when I asked him as 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:56.280 a four year old, Oh good, was he because Reagan 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:59.440 closed the institutions? Guy? I was like, I remember being 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.080 a bum like four year old person and like, you know, 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.840 we're like giving food to like someone house people. Was like, 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.400 why did some people have to live there? And my 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.640 dad's because of Ronald Reagan? And I'm like what I'm for, 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:12.840 I don't know what that means. And I remember saying 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.640 that ship in like first grade, and like my teachers like, 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:23.320 who the funk are you? That's amazing? That's good stuff. 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.880 You know what else is good, miles? Capitalism, which is 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:32.240 the real reason why all people aren't able to live 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:38.400 indoors um Capitalism, Miles, sweet lady, capitalism. Have you ever 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.480 felt like the world's not getting hot enough fast enough 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.480 in England? And going forty degrees celsius? That's not that high? 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:54.200 Forties a low number. Well is crypto. All of these 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:58.680 products and services will help keep those numbers high. Put 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.560 them on the board. Maybe put him on the board. 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.680 How are you doing, Sylphie? Is that good? It made 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.800 you smile? So I'm look, I can go back to 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:12.240 come anytime. That's that's always an option that's on the table, 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:14.880 on the table. We can bring Dr Kellogg right back 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:18.240 into it. Yeah, yeah, let's take Kellogg back. America's great 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.520 come doctor. Speaking of America's great come doctor, try these 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:31.440 products and services. Oh we're back. Clarence Thomas was good 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:33.680 at his first job in government, by which I mean 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:35.560 he pleased all of the people he needed to get 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.320 another job in government that was better. Uh. It is 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.119 worth noting that at one point, while he is working, 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.879 as you know, a lawyer in the AG's office in 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:47.840 the state of his era, Rovie Wade comes up his boss. Obviously, 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.560 dan Forth opposes the ruling and he challenges it in 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.080 a court case dan Fourth v. Planned Parenthood. It was 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.600 later noted by colleagues that Clarence Thomas expressed no particular 0:17:57.640 --> 0:17:59.560 interest in this case. So at least at this point 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:01.720 to work with him when there's like a big fight 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:03.639 over planned parenthood in their office, are like, yeah, he 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.680 didn't really give a ship. Um. Now, this is not 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:09.399 to say that Thomas didn't talk about abortion during this 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:11.960 period in his life. His mother recalled him saying that 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.840 he opposed abortion on demand because if she'd had one, 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:23.560 he wouldn't exist. Um. Now, that said that said at 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:26.520 another point, his sister has an abortion because the doctor's 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.200 already had several kids, and a doctor warns her she 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:31.480 might die if she carries this fetus to terms that 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:34.000 she had some kind of health condition. Right. Um, And 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:38.000 Clarence is said to be understanding of this. Um. So again, 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:40.760 if you're looking for kind of like a very clear 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:43.359 like line between the guy who ends Roe v. Wade 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:46.399 and this dude, it's not in his actual opinions on 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.040 Roe v. Wade because more than anything, he barely seems 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:54.320 to have one right. Um. So, one interesting thing about 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.639 Thomas's career is that for a Supreme Court judge, he 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:02.200 basically doesn't spend any time in court arguing cases. Um, 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:04.280 that is not his job. He wants to be a 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:06.760 great trial lawyer, right, he wants because like that's where 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.359 the fucking money is. Um, But he doesn't ever really 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:11.800 do that the time he's been he's in he's works 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:13.680 for dan Forth for about two and a half years, 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.119 and this is the only time in his entire career 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:19.159 as a judge where he is litigating anything, or his 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.080 entire career in law where he litigates anything at all. Right, 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:26.960 so these are not interesting cases. His first major victory 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:30.359 was an argument restricting the use of vanity license plates 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.119 by rich people. Uh. He was noted, right, like, if 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.240 that's not really a big deal, you know. Um. He 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.080 was noted by some as being the office clown, though, 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:41.800 which is consistent with a number of recollections of people 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:44.280 who worked with him over the years. Now, depending on 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:48.000 who you ask, you might also consider him an office bully. However, 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:50.359 the person that he spent the time bullying in the 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:53.400 office was John Ashcroft, So I'm not going to say 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:57.359 that this goes in the bastard column for him. I 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.560 think it's completely fine to bully John. Yeah, alright, alright, 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.000 maybe you got a point here come back that gets 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.480 that gets you one year out of hell if we're 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:17.560 going by Catholic rules. Yeah. Um so obviously John Ashcroft, 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:19.760 if you don't know, was a religious weirdo who was 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:24.280 like a man built entirely out of hang ups. Um 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:27.800 and Clarence Thomas, as we are we will discuss, loves 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.600 to make extremely sexual jokes and comments to his coworkers. 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:33.959 So a big part of what he do is deliberately 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.840 try to flush fluster John Ashcroft by bringing up things 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:42.040 that are inappropriate. Um. Now again, Fuck. I will be 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:45.280 honest here. I am a little bit drawing a line there, 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:47.800 because all the writing on his time with Ashcroft said 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:54.399 was that he attempted to like deliberately try to fluster him. Um. 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.280 But I'm bringing up the sex stuff because one of 0:20:57.320 --> 0:20:59.640 the most important things to know about working with Clarence 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:07.720 Thomas is that the man loves Miles, loves pornography. Absolutely 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.919 huge porn guy. I don't think you're ready for what 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:16.000 a porn guy Clarence Thomas is? What I mean? What 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:17.560 what would I even I'm trying to even think of 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:19.679 what I would describe if you said, what's a porn 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:25.119 guy to you? Yeah, somebody who has like a couple 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:28.320 like who subscribes to some magazines that we're going like 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:32.280 old school physical media days and has like you know, 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:35.920 like like a shelf of tapes. Okay, this is interesting, 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:39.439 This is interesting, miles. Um. I'm going to describe to 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:43.080 you what Clarence Thomas does about porn later and you 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.119 tell me if you think porn guy is the right 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:47.200 thing to call him. But okay, that's fine. And look, 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:49.640 you know I'm not you know, do you? But yeah, 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.879 I'm this guy. Okay, we'll talk about that in a 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.000 minute now. Thomas's relationship with his mother was strained for 0:21:56.080 --> 0:22:00.840 completely understandable reasons. He grows up in a primarily male environment, 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:03.400 and he seems to have gone from awkward around women 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:07.200