An annual income of $100,000 is no longer enough to buy a house

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos wrote that the stench of corruption around the Supreme Court is now so strong investigative journalists are swarming. And Clarence Thomas is giving them all the fodder they need. The latest is from the New York Times and is about his long-standing membership in the Horatio Alger Association, which provided another collection of wealthy friends. In response Thomas has opened the Supreme Court chamber to the society, giving their induction ceremonies an extra flavor only he could provide.

As the circle of Thomas’ rich and powerful associates grows, so grows the likelihood of conflicts of interest for him on the court and the likelihood the media will be able to dig them up. Each new discovery will only deepen the crisis in the court and generate more momentum for reform. ... The Times report is full of the stuff we’ve come to expect from Thomas stories: his continuing simmering rage at having been perceived as getting to where he is through affirmative action and the resulting chip on his shoulder, as well as his susceptibility to very rich people who want to give him stuff, which he clearly feels is owed to him, up to and including his wedding reception.

The stench has gotten so bad that progressive groups used to be afraid to take on the court are now demanding court reform. The Republican House may stop any action for now. But Democrats better start now to be ready with reform bills in 2025. Public opinion won’t give them a choice. That constant investigation may also turn up some strange comparisons. McCarter also noted that the Associated Press declared a scandal that Justice Sonia Sotomayor writes books! She goes on book tours! She gets paid for it! The schools she visits buy hundreds of copies of her books! Her court staff is helping with her book ventures! That’s not at all the same as billionaires funding luxury vacations for Thomas and Alito or making sure Jane Roberts’ company gets lots of business. Might students and librarians have interest in cases before the Court? Yes, but not $2.4 billion in personal interest. That last is the amount Alito’s sugar daddy benefited in a case before the Court, for which Alito did not recuse himself. Might Sotomayor’s staff helping organize book events prompt court reform? If so, great! Senate Democrats are working on a Supreme Court ethics act. But benefiting from book tours (which she disclosed) are a long way from a billionaire paying for a luxury Alaskan fishing trip with glacier ice martinis. SemDem of the Kos community wrote about a huge threat to the middle class dream of owning a home. Large corporations are buying up so many houses they are driving up housing prices for regular people. These houses are offered for rent at high rates, which makes it harder for regular people to save to buy a house. Sometimes these firms buy entire neighborhoods. These companies usually pay cash, which greatly simplifies things for the seller, but against which a person needing a mortgage can’t compete. Add in slow house building over the last several years and the supply is now constricted. Prices go up. Which is a gold mine for these companies. Wall Street landlords are making enough to afford lobbying. And Congress is the only group that can make a difference. Some of the money these investment companies use came from when they gorged on mortgages leading to the crash in 2008. They’re now profiting off the destruction they created. They are stealing from first-time home buyers as they push the idea that renting is better – sheesh one must stay in one place! (I have been in my house for over 30 years, my parents were in theirs for over 50.) They tend to target black neighborhoods. Corporate landlords must deliver profits to shareholders. That means higher rents, more evictions, and not doing basic maintenance and repairs. Homeless shelters are seeing a dramatic increase in people seeking their help.

As the Wall Street Journal now says, high house prices along with student debt and meager savings mean that making an annual income of $100,000 is no longer enough to buy a house.

Yet home ownership is one of the few ways to generate wealth for those who don’t have it. And corporations have found another way to keep them from getting it. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported the nasty guy is in serious legal jeopardy and could face jail time. His lawyers have asked a federal judge to delay the trial until after the 2024 election. They claim he could not get a fair trial during the campaign.

In effect, Trump's lawyers are arguing justice should be delayed, not because he's a sitting president but because he once again seeks to be.

And if the trial is delayed and he wins he’ll simply tell his Justice Department to drop the case. That will be his personal get-out-of-jail-free card for any federal case. He’s also pledging to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Biden. All that allows fellow candidate Chris Christie to play what to me sound like mind games. Wrote Eleveld:

"I'm telling you—no matter what he says, no matter how he's bragging and going on and on about him not being afraid—he goes to bed every night thinking about the sound of that jail cell closing behind him," Christie said Tuesday on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Christie recalled that when he would prosecute political figures as a U.S. attorney in the 2000s, Trump would tell him, "I could never do that—I could never go to jail."

In the comments of a pundit roundup for Kos Denise Oliver Velez posted her usual collection of cartoons. Here are a a few. Pat Byrnes drew one of a couple standing between a burning forest and rushing waves. The man says, “See? Here come the floods to drown out the fires. So don’t tell me the climate is out of balance.” Brother Mark tweeted a couple panels from the Naked Pastor. In the first a shepherd is sitting with his sheep as an angel (presumably announcing the birth of Jesus) hovers overhead. The shepherd asks, “So when you said peace on earth and good will to all people, does that include gay people like me?” The angel replies, “What about ‘all’ is so hard to understand?” The second shows Obama and Jesus in a bar. Obama says, “Trump’s reversing all my policies!” Jesus replies, “The Evangelicals are reversing mine!”