The Official World Politics Thread

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YT has taken care of the Supreme Coon for all his decades of tap dancing for YT…

 

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Clarence Thomas Secretly Accepted Luxury Trips From Major GOP Donor

Island-hopping on a superyacht. Private jet rides around the world. The undisclosed gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the Supreme Court. “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this,” says one former judge.

www.propublica.org

some quotes

IN LATE JUNE 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.

If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too.

For more than two decades, Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas. And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.

The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.


These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures. His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts, two ethics law experts said. He also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht, these experts said.

In a statement, Crow acknowledged that he’d extended “hospitality” to the Thomases “over the years,” but said that Thomas never asked for any of it and it was “no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends.”

Federal judges sit in a unique position of public trust. They have lifetime tenure, a privilege intended to insulate them from the pressures and potential corruption of politics. A code of conduct for federal judges below the Supreme Court requires them to avoid even the “appearance of impropriety.” Members of the high court, Chief Justice John Roberts has written, “consult” that code for guidance. The Supreme Court is left almost entirely to police itself.

Thomas’ approach to ethics has already attracted public attention. Last year, Thomas didn’t recuse himself from cases that touched on the involvement of his wife, Ginni, in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. While his decision generated outcry, it could not be appealed.

Crow met Thomas after he became a justice. The pair have become genuine friends, according to people who know both men. Over the years, some details of Crow’s relationship with the Thomases have emerged. In 2011, The New York Times reported on Crow’s generosity toward the justice. That same year, Politico revealed that Crow had given half a million dollars to a Tea Party group founded by Ginni Thomas, which also paid her a $120,000 salary. But the full scale of Crow’s benefactions has never been revealed.

Long an influential figure in pro-business conservative politics, Crow has spent millions on ideological efforts to shape the law and the judiciary. Crow and his firm have not had a case before the Supreme Court since Thomas joined it, though the court periodically hears major cases that directly impact the real estate industry. The details of his discussions with Thomas over the years remain unknown, and it is unclear if Crow has had any influence on the justice’s views.

In his statement, Crow said that he and his wife have never discussed a pending or lower court case with Thomas. “We have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue,” he added.

In Thomas’ public appearances over the years, he has presented himself as an everyman with modest tastes.

“I don’t have any problem with going to Europe, but I prefer the United States, and I prefer seeing the regular parts of the United States,” Thomas said in a recent interview for a documentary about his life, which Crow helped finance.

“I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There’s something normal to me about it,” Thomas said. “I come from regular stock, and I prefer that — I prefer being around that.”

 

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UNGUARDED: Buying Guardianship homes turns into family affair

Following WLRN’s reporting on the Guardianship Program’s sale of its wards' properties to Express Homes — owned by Miami City Attorney Victoria Méndez' husband Carlos Morales — officials launched an investigation. Now we have found Gallego Homes, owned by Méndez' mother Margarita, also made...

www.wlrn.org

The nonprofit Guardianship Program uses proceeds from the sales of its “incapacitated” clients’ properties to pay for their care. But the gains Gallego Homes collected from its subsequent sales did not go towards the care of the program’s incapacitated clients

The Guardianship Program’s real estate transactions are currently being reviewed and investigated by the Miami−Dade County Inspector General’s Office. Miami−Dade Mayor Danielle Levine Cava previously ordered all payments halted to the Guardianship program pending the investigation’s findings. The county has since resumed funding on several conditions, including that it pause all real estate sales until the probe is complete

The inquiry by county officials comes on the heels of WLRN’s reporting last month on the Guardianship Program’s sale of 14 properties to Express Homes. The Miami real estate company, like Gallego Homes, generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in gains from resales of those properties.

In reviewing probate court filings, real estate sales records and other documents, WLRN has learned that Gallego Homes and Express Homes are linked to the same family.

Gallego Homes is owned by Margarita Méndez, the mother of Miami City Attorney Victoria Méndez. Victoria is listed as the company’s president in 2011, and vice-president from 2012−2019, according to state records. Corporate records show Carlos Morales, owner of Express Homes, was once referred to as an “assistant” with Gallego Homes. Morales and Victoria Méndez are married and currently own a home that was purchased from the Guardianship Program.

Asked about her work for her mother’s real estate firm, Victoria Méndez, in an email to WLRN, said her role with Gallego Homes was minimal and that she is not familiar with the properties bought by her mother’s company. The most recent purchase was in 2018, when she was listed as vice president of the corporation.

"I do not have any information on the few properties my mother purchased over the years,” she wrote. “I was on Gallego Homes for estate planning purposes as her only daughter.”

“I always disclosed Gallego Homes on my City of Miami financial disclosure forms,” she said. “My mother has not purchased anything in years since she was slowing down due to her age and health.”

When reached by phone, Margarita Méndez hung up on a WLRN reporter who was inquiring about Gallego Homes and its purchase of Guardianship Program properties. She did not respond to text messages.

In an email sent to probate attorneys on March 14 and obtained by WLRN, Carlos McDonald, the executive director of the Guardianship Program of Dade County, called WLRN’s reporting “incomplete.” He wrote that since 2012, the program has represented more than 4,000 people in guardianship cases, and that “less than 3% involved real property transactions.”

Using McDonald’s calculations, Guardianship’s property sales could have roughly involved up to 120 clients. WLRN’s reporting has found members of the Morales/Méndez family and their companies have purchased at least 21 homes from the program over that time frame, representing a significant percentage of the estimated total.

Margarita Méndez first incorporated Gallego Homes in 2010 after a series of real estate transactions involving a West Flagler condo. It was originally bought from the Guardianship Program by Express Homes that same year.

Express Homes purchased the property from the Guardianship Program for $5,000. The home was owned by a woman named Maria Sanchez who was under the program’s care. Even for a real estate market that was then battered by the 2008−09 financial crisis, the price was low.

Two months after the purchase, Carlos Morales, owner of Express Homes, transferred the title to Margarita Méndez, his mother-in-law.
Shortly after assuming ownership of the condo, Margarita formed a Florida company called Gallego Homes, according to state corporate records. Two days after the company was incorporated, Margarita transferred ownership of the West Flagler condo to her new company.

According to the property deed for the condo, Victoria Méndez prepared the legal documents for transferring the property from Express Homes to her mother, and later from her mother to Gallego Homes. In one property deed, Victoria’s signature appears next to her husband’s.

Morales’ phone number was listed as a contact for the “owner” on one property listed by Gallego Homes in 2013, according to records on an online listing service.

After the series of real estate transactions involving the West Flagler condo, Gallego Homes rented it until 2019, and sold the property that year for $121,500 — a 2,330% increase from the original purchase price.

I'm not posting all of it cuz its kinda long article, but if you go to the site they have an audio of the story you can play. But basically they were taking advantage of the elderly in that guardianship program. City attorney was getting first dibs on properties that were supposed to go to auction. They got given to at below market value to her husbands real estate company and her mothers. In some cases they were bought and sold the next day for hundred of percent profit. Sometimes would relist homes with pretend upgrades and bank on the sale. They've been doing this for years.

First came to light with a lawsuit filed by the son of someone. Idk if i posted the story but, his parent had a bunch of liens on the property fromt he city totaling low 6 figures. Could pay it, reached out to Mendez and she recommended selling it to her husband whos an agent. Husband says its not worth much cuz of the liens, gives him pennies on the dollar. Then the son finds out the house went instantly on the market for sale and sold for big profit with no liens on it. Turns out after he sold it, the liens mysteriously instantly disappeared, so he sued.

Anyway, shout out to capitalism and no oversight.

 

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French acting like how Americans should be acting rn

 

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