It's been more than twenty-four hours since John Oliver opened the 11th season of his HBO staple Last Week Tonight with an enticing offer to ethically-challenged Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. After quite convincingly arguing the numerous grounds for Thomas' ouster from the Supreme Court, Oliver's main story of the premiere episode built to a crescendo when he offered something Thomas very clearly loves — a monetary bribe — to the justice himself if he would vacate his spot on the bench.

As Oliver made painfully clear, the offer wasn't a joke. In Oliver's always amusing own words, he addressed Thomas directly into camera, and explained, “We have a special offer for you tonight: We are prepared to offer you $1 million a year for the rest of your life, if you simply agree to leave the Supreme Court immediately and never come back.”

Oliver continued, “This is not a joke. If you watch our show, you know jokes aren’t really our thing. This is real. A million dollars a year — until you or I die.”

Oliver's plea followed his authoritative report on the numerous morally objectionable actions Clarence Thomas has allegedly been involved in during his years as a Supreme Court justice. All judges, but particularly those in the highest court of the land, are supposed to be impartial interpreters of the law, but arguably no one has violated that tenet more wildly than Thomas.

As Oliver spelled out, it's not only in Thomas' archly conservative statements and partisan comments but even more concerningly, in Thomas' financial wheelings and dealings in which he leverages his position on the court as a tool to wield unheralded power.

Among his Supreme Court lowlights: Thomas' wife reportedly contacted Republican colleagues of his in an aggressive attempt to overturn the 2020 election results; Justice Thomas took trips with Dallas-based real estate investor and major GOP donor Harlan Crow; and a friend of Thomas' allegedly helped pay the more than $260,000 price for Thomas’s Prevost Le Mirage XL Marathon RV.

The implication is that the gifts of Thomas' wealthy Republican friends allowed them to curry favor with Thomas for favorable Supreme Court decisions, and Oliver's piece — along with numerous others in ProPublica, The New York Times and The Washington Post — sure seem to make it appear that Thomas is holding up his end of the bargain.

Calls have therefore been made repeatedly for Thomas to step down from the Supreme Court and resign, but unsurprisingly Thomas doesn't seem concerned with doing the right thing (only the far right thing).

Oliver undoubtedly realizes this, and his offer by design seems to carry a higher likelihood of success at getting Thomas to resign.

As if anticipating possible follow up questions from Thomas, Oliver preemptively pointed out that this offer was coming from him and not HBO. “I am personally on the hook,” Oliver insisted. “You can make me really regret this. I could be doing stand-up tours to pay for your retirement for years.”

Oliver even sweetened the deal by agreeing to throw in a $2.4 million motor home, a reference to another of Thomas' scandals during his time on the bench — a 1999 loan he got from health care industry mogul Anthony Welters.

Oliver concluded his plea by telling Thomas he has exactly 30 days to make his resignation effective for the deal to take effect.

“So that’s the offer,” Oliver explained. “A million dollars a year and a brand new condo on wheels, and all you have to do in return is sign the contract and get the f— off the Supreme Court.”

Now the only question that remains is, could Clarence Thomas really be considering John Oliver's offer? Sure, accepting the terms of the deal would tarnish his reputation, but how much lower can it really get at this point anyway? At least with this deal, he'd be getting the thing he seems to value most highly — money — while at the same time taking a million dollars a year away from a liberal, a petty rationale that seems right up Thomas' alley.

It seems Clarence Thomas‘ career is destined to end in disgrace either way, but at least with this offer from John Oliver, Thomas could ride off into the sunset in his illicitly purchased RV with some extra change for the road.