Right on cue, Republican Senator Mike Braun of Indiana today told a reporter that states not only should decide the issue of abortion but should also be able to decide the issues of whether interracial marriage should be legal and whether couples should have access to contraception. He told a reporter: “Well, you can list a whole host of issues, when it comes down to whatever they are, I’m going to say that they’re not going to all make you happy within a given state, but we’re better off having states manifest their points of view rather than homogenizing it across the country as Roe v. Wade did.”
In the midst of weariness of bigger and bigger threats looming to our autonomy and civil rights in a democratic country, tonight I'll take the smile at seeing Heather's lower case disdain for "justice Clarence Thomas," as she uses for former "president Trump," while holding full and righteous regard for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Amen. In the meantime, one has to wonder how stupid Mike Braun thinks the public are. The absolutely clear message of his original statement in re Loving was unmitigated racism. You can't walk that kind of in your face bigotry back. I'm gobsmacked.
Why on earth do republicans like Mike Braun think they should be able to control people’s intimate behavior, but corporations in the public square can run amuck all over everyone? Why is it anyone else’s damn business if someone decides to use birth control or other intimate behavior? Talk about freedom; let’s discuss unrestrained GREED for money, power, and control.
Let's face it-they're pushing this agenda now that the Federalist Society has bought the conservative members of SCOTUS. Those members have been doing their best to kick almost everything back to the states and are IGNORING the Federal Supremacy clause in the Constitution. So much for "originalism".
Hi Roland. Referencing what I’ve learned from HCR over the past year, why do you think it’s called the Federalist rather than the Antifederalist Society? Isn’t this the same contest that dates back prior to the ratification of our Constitution?
Specifically, control of society. The power to control the laws, to bring back the Stone Age society of whites first, men first, straights first, and everyone else persecuted. If I didn’t have my dad and our years of conversations, I wouldn’t understand this thinking (auto-correct wrote down “the stinking,” probably more to the point).
Daria I too am gobsmacked by this unmitigated racism. I would be delighted to contribute to a fund to provide DNA tests of all southern members of Congress. Through DNA it was found that many of Thomas Jefferson’s progeny had Black ancestors. According to Mary Chestnut’s Civil War diary, this was also true of numerous ‘distinguished’ southern families.
Since, under historical southern racial laws, one drop of Black blood renders a person Black, I would imagine that a number of southern members of Congress should be proud that a highly qualified Black woman soon will be voted onto the Supreme Court.
And aren't the peculiar questions and/or rantings of the southern white men on the senate panel extraordinary in this day and time? Maybe being televised so FOX can play clips to Trump's base isn't such a great public service.
If cotton and blackburn and lindsey graham and all the others took DNA tests, they would be like Lady Macbeth, in the shower constantly trying unsuccessfully to wash the blackness out.
Tanning beds. Honest to God, what utter folly and madness. White people don't understand that tanning doesn't increase the production of eumelanin but increases Skin DNA photodamage significantly. Another disconnect from reality.
Even in Jefferson's time people were aware of his children by Sally Hemming. Since her grandfather and father were white (she was Jefferson's wife's half sister), it must have been obvious to those visiting Monticello. It was used to criticize him publicly. The DNA wasn't enough for his white descendants to allow people from this liaison to be buried in the Jefferson cemetery. I don't know if this has changed or not. Southern women were well aware of trips out to the slave quarters. And we have the whole phenomenon of "passing".
Michele After DNA proved conclusively the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemming extended relationship, I recall reading of a reunion of this mixed Jefferson ‘family.’ I don’t know if any Jeffersons refused to associate with the Hemming branch.
Lucian Truscott IV called that meeting, and it pissed off some Jefferson descendants and Monticello docents. I subscribe to Lucian’s substack page, TCinLA turned me on to him. Click on my profile photo.
What a marvelous insight to history by Lucian Truscott IV (seems like an uncommonly fine individual). Obviously some of the Jeffersons were less than thrilled to meet their Hemming ‘cousins.’ And the docent who blamed Truscott for destroying everything by seeking to get the expansive Jefferson/Hemming family together—-as a long-time docent, my reaction is that he/she is a docent living in a time warp.
Thank you for this link, Roland. I've known of the Hemmings, of course, but loved reading Lucian Truscott's beautifully and righteously written piece. As I think you know, I too am from a black/white family, both side. I wish I could subscribe, but in this critical election year, that is where I feel I must donate what I can spare this year. I have snagged the link, though, so that if I repost, the attribution will go to Lucian as it should.
This may be new news to Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and the others making veiled accusations of our newest SCOTUS nominee. To say nothing of Gym Jordan, Mo Brooks and David Purdue. Otherwise, how to explain their rants (aka concerns)?
Genealogy can prove that all the racist bull Schitt is just that. It will make fools of the foolish, educate the ignorant, but can’t do a damn thing for the greedy, stupid bastards with their power agenda.
In th e early 70’s the Ranger came out to my work station on Lolo Creek. He had a fellow with him that I was already familiar with. This fellow was to have my job because we needed to integrate the workplace. Six foot five Michael Ray Richardson and I had shared a locker room at U of M. Unbeknownst to the world we also had a wrestling team. He was a super star stellar athlete. I was just an athlete. He said he wouldn’t take my job if would cause me grief. I liked him pretty much so I helped him get things figured out that first week. A week went by and the ranger called me in to come hold down the station as ole Sugar Ray got lonesome 40 miles from town. I was glad to have my job back. That old ranger came back with a woman in tow and before he could say a word I said “Wait a minute here, she’s not black!” Yup we needed women too. I quit him then but not race or gender wise. My dream job had come through at the Jump Base in Missoula. I remember trying to be mad but I couldn’t really get anything going.
Yes, Senator Braun and his remarks cannot be taken back nor forgotten. The GOPs march backward to pre-Civil War days continues. Now interracial marriage and desegregated schools are out there on this party's chopping block. How dangerous are these days? No one can afford to not pay attention.
To Sen Braun and the pseudo lawmakers: “Senator, you’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, Have you left no sense of decency? Joseph Welch
Good point Roland. It’s about 44% of Americans that hold “creation” as a Worldview. That means we are more religiously radical than Turkey! And btw, per capita the US is more armed than Yemen. Let that those two facts sink in for a moment.
Sadly, I have more friends like that than I would care to admit, and most of them have kids in school too. Those kids are at risk of school shootings. Their kids. My kids. All of our kids. And we choose as a country to do nothing. What a disgrace. Just another example of looking at the metrics of murder, of kids, at school, and only in 'merica we falsely believe "nothing can be done".
Jeri, I agree but would add that I think the line that separates Far Right Radical Republicans from "mainstream" Republicans is just about gone. Braun and Blackburn are only a breath away from the oldest turtle in the pond, McConnell. While we were all padding Amazon's bank account and wallowing in the convenience of buying toilet paper in bulk without leaving the house, the world was changing, the balance of power shifting. Did I see it or even have a vague sense of discomfort? Maybe, but by then it was already too late. I don't see the way back. Thank you for pointing out that the mainstream, a word much in use, hardly exists anymore. As you say, they love it.
Dean I delight in your reference to ‘the oldest turtle in the pond, McConnell,’ though I have never seen a chinless turtle. He has a bevy of shameless snapping turtles in his swamp. I have a craving for turtle soup, if anyone knows how to really clean those suckers.
Marlene Skewering Republicans is like shooting clay pigeons at 15 feet or fishing with a hand grenade. So easy that it quickly becomes boring, until I bore once again into these boring blackguards.
Time for this if any “mainstream” R’s interested “This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but to come to the aid of their country.” Eugene McCarthy.
And they all lament the way downtown used to be. I also know people who should know better who buy from Amazon. We won't if we can help it. And now we have that loathsome ad on TV in the wedding party.
I don't watch tv, so I have at least been spared the wedding party ad. But re: the ethics of shopping with Amazon. I resisted for many many years but I woke up one day and was 75 years old, with a collapsing spine and lungs that were working badly, and I couldn't drive. I have a friend who does grocery pickup and takes me to medical appointments , but when it came right down to a choice between living with a violation of my No-Amazon Ethics Code and re-useable bamboo paper towels at bulk prices, delivered to my door in two days, I decided in about two seconds. I literally cringe every time I place an order and am aware that my moral distaste helps no-one. I also know that my struggles about shopping or not-shopping with Amazon are very much First World Problems, but I'm afraid that we earnest liberals and socialists have done a great deal more damage than buying toilet paper from Jeff Bezos. Still, I shop, I cringe, I am aware. The terrible thing about all this is that, if we could have had this conversation even four decades ago, it might have made a difference. Today I am grateful to Dr. Richardson for posting these remarkable essays and providing a space of women and men of good faith to share their thoughts in an open forum.
Braun and others do this all the time. They let their base know that they share their racism and will work to impose it by law, but then deny it to deflect the inevitable backlash.
But make no mistake, they are coming for us — Heather shined a bright light on their agenda. And reading today's installment, I immediately thought of my interracial marriage, which would was illegal in our home state of Oregon until 1951.
I write from Victoria, British Columbia, where we're wrapping up a tour of universities here and in Vancouver that our son, Atticus, might attend. In June, he visits schools in Montreal and Toronto. He's attracted to education and life in a diverse and civil society.
Best wishes to Atticus! I hope he attends the school of his choice. Too, I hope his experience in Canada will be far better than what he's grown up with in the US.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Republicans are interested in promoting as much racism as possible. The things they fly up the flagpole to get a quick read of public sentiment gets more outrageous by the day.
They are so utterly committed to the white male society. Relentlessly, deeply committed. Look what happened in the 2000 presidential election in Florida. They pulled out everything, every slimy maneuver, to force the outcome of putting Bush in the WH.
What has changed is that you and I are no longer OK with that. Voter suppression, abortion rights, civil rights, MeToo, George Floyd, all front page news every day. Everyone who can read is paying attention, and that is a beautiful thing for justice and democracy. January 6 is etched in stone now. Everyone in this country, and I do mean everyone who isn’t burying their head in the sand, knows the drill. The turnout in November 2020 broke all records because everyone in the country knows the stakes now. Democracy 🌹 or death ☠️
Remember California, Daria. The 2018 blue wave election washed through Orange County, the racist bastion that gave us Reagan and Schwarzenegger, and now the Republican Party no longer has any significant power in the state. Democratic supermajorities in every department. The racists have been completely marginalized, they no longer matter politically. In danger of extinction, no power. (after the California 2018 midterms, someone remarked, “you can fit all the Republican House members in a minivan.“)
As goes California, so eventually goes the nation. As goes the two miraculous Georgia Senate seats, so goes the South, eventually. Democracy and diversity will prevail. The writing is on the wall. That’s the way I see it.
Roland, I truly hope, with all my heart, that you are right. The anger, disappointment and sadness I feel every time I read an article or opinion piece that describes or bolsters the right's intentions to grab more power overwhelms me. I hope you are right.
As a fellow California Democrat (and resident of the OC) I do hope you are right! Although in 2020 the Republicans did manage to regain a seat in this county, let's see what happens in the new districts this year. Katie Porter is looking strong. I want to keep her in Congress, but sadly I am not in her district.
I love Katie Porter so much!! We need more of her. I’d like to see her as a Presidential candidate one day… and Senator Whitehouse would be an excellent running mate.
I would see it that way too IF so many states hadn't put laws in place that enable Republican-controlled legislatures (and their ilk in offices that administer elections at the county level). That's the thing that scares me the most. A huge turnout electing Democrats in those states will likely have their votes nullified, resulting in never-ending litigation which will further immobilize effective governance.
It’s been done before, many times, hasn’t it? There’s no shame involved in paid performances. Seems like the deep level Federalist Society is intent on un-democratizing our democracy.
The only explanation -- and it makes sense to me -- is that he is convinced he is not racist (because he knows that's a "bad" thing), so none of his beliefs, attitudes, statements, or actions can possibly be "racist." Because they come from him, you see? And he's NOT a racist. Because that's a bad thing to be.
He doesn't think the public is stupid. He thinks he's smart. And moral. And not a racist.
Do they really believe that all the “Rights” they want to do away with only affect Democrats ? If that was the case it’s highly unlikely they would be “ Rights “ in the first place.Talk about cutting off you’re nose to spite you’re face.But the more they put both feet in their mouths the less chance they have at winning Elections. This is nuts !
Well, Marcia, here's the thing, Yes, yes they do believe that they personally will be excluded from any purge or revocation of civil/human rights, because they're special. They don't believe that they, their likeminded family or friends will be touched by the madness. It is a puzzlement.
I live in Indiana and as far as I and many others are concerned both Todd Young and Mike Braun are a disgrace to our state and our country! There are many others sitting in the US Senate that are just like them!
Yes, these cretins that are supposedly representing their constituents which in reality they are doing no such thing, they need to be booted out. We here in Ohio have the execrable Gym Jordan in the House. These people get elected a lot of times by gerrymandering and by voter suppression tactics. If we don't get these voting rights acts passed, our very votes may be seriously compromised.
No slip of the tongue for sure. Did anyone take him to task? They will continue doing this until someone does. Once challenged, they will scurry back into their holes in the ground.
Being from Indiana and hearing a chorus of racism growing up, I'm not. Keep in mind that Indiana had the largest number of KKK members in the 1920s and that nonsense is not gone. I remember a friend of mine from southern Indiana (Bedford) saying the racism was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. And that hasn't changed. Also a lot of them are knee jerk Rs. I have another friend who lives just south of Indy and she likes to joke about being different by being a D.
I lived in south central Indiana (Bloomington) for 9 years. I always heard that Martinsville, just up the road apiece on the way to Indy, was the "birthplace" of the KKK, at least in Indiana. Bloomington was one of those college-town blue "islands" in that part of the state, so it tended to look askance at the seas of "red" that surrounded it. It is an area that was apparently heavily settled by people originally from Appalachia, especially rural Brown county (just to the east of Bloomington and Monroe county), which is one of the only "mountainous" areas in the entire Midwest. (It prompts the question: "Why do hills seem to attract rednecks?"...y'know??) One can even hear vestiges of this in the accents and speech patterns one finds there. Coming there from Georgia in 1976, I guess it wasn't SO different from the area I grew up in, but I was struck, even then, by how fiercely conservative the area was. I can't imagine what it's like now.
I hear you. My friend from Bedford told me about Martinsville. And although I am from Indiana, I do not have the Hoosier twang as I grew up in Elkhart to the far north. All my Indy cousins have it and my sister's family although she would have had to acquire it along the way. Indy and south....and it is like Appalachia in culture and speech. My friend also told me that there were places in certain Indiana counties there that she would not go.
Michele Per capita the ratio of KKK members in NJ in the 1920s was quite high. Even where we go on the North Fork of Long Island, there was a second floor room in the village auditorium where KKK held meetings. I recall hearing that the KKK even paraded in Washington. Fortunately, the KKK leader was such an ass hole that the movement faltered—but its embers are still glowing today.
I am not surprised. The KKK was strong here in Oregon in the legislature in the 1920s. Their ire was directed at Catholics since Oregon was not at all friendly to blacks and even now we do not have a large population. And the KKK burned a cross in the yard of a Catholic in Niles, Michigan....this from a person whose grandfather suffered this indignity. I also heard lots of biased talk about Catholics growing up. Then there was the prejudice against Native Americans in my husband's paternal grandmother. As it happens through his mother he has Lakota ancestors. We became engaged while we were in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and she was worried that I might be black. When we first met, her initial comment reflected on my weight... beautiful in Sierra Leone, but not here and i wish I still weighed that....my husband was offended. I thought it was funny.
The episode I referenced was in Niles, Mi, which is not that far from Muskegon. One of my uncles was from Muskegon and evidenced the racism that is there. This is a conservative part of Michigan historically.
Not a parallel universe. We live in a universe that through the ages has produced, along with good people, murderers and liars as well, some of whom often have taken charge of things. When everyone else wises up and boots them out, they crawl back into their holes, only to later re-emerge and again take charge, until they are again booted out, driving them back into their holes, from which they eventually emerge again, and then the whole cycle takes place again, and again, and again. Not a parallel universe; it's the universe in which we live. How else do you explain Biblical stonings, crucifixions, the Inquisition, human slavery, the Holocaust, Rwanda, the Rhohinga genocide, Hitler, Putin, etc. along with those, too many to name, capable of producing the brilliance of the Enlightenment and the Renaissance?
I’d like to share here, Ellie, Senator Cory Booker’s questioning of Judge Jackson late in the day yesterday. Will not get the coverage that senators Cruz, Hawley, and Cotton got or Blackburn today, but I certainly wish it to be so.
I am posting it because it soothed and tempered my outrage at what was on display yesterday from the clown car. Such vitriol and barely disguised hatred and fear.
If not moved by the conversation, if you will, between Sen Booker and the Judge, one does not have a love of We the People.
Senator booker’s remarks soothed my soul. After such vitriol from Cruz, Cotton, Hawley and Graham I was ready to gross a brick. Then along comes Booker and my BP came back to normal.
Yes, I thought Booker was so effective also and he added some much needed normalcy and decency after the embarASSing questions from marsha, josh, teddy, ms. lindsay, and little itty bitty tom.
It was, indeed, balm for the heart and soul. There is SO MUCH to be angry and sad about; it felt good to cry over witnessing truth sown with kindness and humor.
Exactly! Thank you for posting! After 11 hours, I was too tired to watch and happy to have the link this morning. I plan to share the link with friends & family today, as I know many are exhausted by the 'creepy republican questioning.
Thanks so much for posting clip. I applaud Sen. Booker’s generous (and productive?) way of handling Sen. Graham’s predictable line of questioning, despite how privately irritating and disappointing I find the Senator from the south to be these days.
Thank you Christine - Cory Booker always brings it home!! I'll post this here ... please listen to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's session with Judge Brown-Jackson ... I doubt that anyone will hear it anywhere else - possibly the most important presentation of the day:
WATCH: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse questions Jackson in Supreme Court confirmation hearings
I can't follow these conversations now, Christine - thank you and others who are up to the task - I will tune in and pitch in when able ... by the way, did you see this?
Damn: A sobering note from Finland about America's role in all of this
Published Saturday by Josh Marshall for Talking Points Memo, an accusation and a plea.
Translated into rough English, from a Finnish TPM member who believes that the U.S. has yet to come to terms with the role we’ve played in providing the backdrop for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. His thesis is that Russia has viewed the U.S. as a “back door” towards weakening Europe and NATO in its reaction to the invasion.
"I understand you would like to see your heroic country as the navel of the world and as the main focus of any operation, but I am sorry to inform that, in this case, you are only cheap tools. You had to be weakened (and Britain manipulated to Brexit etc) in order to facilitate invasions to Ukraine, Belarussia and a list of other neighboring pieces of land in Putin’s future Menu.
"So, as a KGB officer would plan, they came exactly from the opposite direction than where they were expected. They professionally built an operation web among the rural redneck cowboys, evangelical christians, the NRA, the most republican of all republicans, your law enforcement, some military people, big business etc etc. They popped up to the surface from within the “core americans”, but their long dive before that was planned and had started from the Kremlin’s operation board."
Yes Kathleen. I read it with a depth called for. I find it important to include opinion of our country from those that are “looking in” from outside. Revelatory. We are a global world, not merely separated by geopolitical boundaries.
“We the People” means all humans. By the hand of our Creator.
As always, he makes it clear about how SCOTUS has been corrupted by Dark Money. He also did NOT get into the weeds about her rulings. He did clearly point out how important civil juries are-i.e. talking about Juris Prudence itself.
It really boggles my mind (and breaks my heart) how adept some people are at speaking politely and pretending to show respect while subtly insulting you and stabbing you in the back ... I wonder if they realize that what they project is what they invite ...?
"... [I]f you are going to say that the states should be able to do as they wish without the federal government protecting civil rights on, say, the issue of abortion, you must entertain the principle that the entire body of decisions in which the federal government protects civil rights, beginning with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ending segregation in the public schools, is illegitimate.
And that is off-the-charts huge."
YES!
It is also "off-the-charts huge" that Heather, you are calling out racism and bigotry for what it is more and more emphatically! In your earlier LFAA, your words were far less pointed about the bigotry committed. And, I must say that I admire that tremendously!
The discrimination, Jim-Crowism, provincialism, unreasonable prejudices, fanaticism, and, quite frankly, injustices, spewed and displayed by the right, have to be called out for what they are: bigoted inequities and putrid moral compasses. They know nothing about ethics, values or life-giving compassion and empathy for they build their fortresses with the mud of disdain.
Good catch, Ellie. And, justice Thomas is still hospitalized with an "infection." He's been receiving intravenous antibiotics. Seems he should be better after 4+ days. What's the truth here?
Anyone else hoping it might lead to a new judge appointment? I am not wishing death on him, but is it possible he might decide to step down if his illness is something serious? I know RBG worked with Pancreatic CA, but not sure he is of the same fortitude as she was.
Good Morning Ellie! Thanks for making me smile today, by highlighting the use of a couple of lower case letters and an important capital letter😊 Not much to smile about these days.....
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a bright light and she's doing a remarkable job 🌟
I’m very glad that I’ve always been a student of, and teacher of critical thinking skills. These skills are based on only critical “theory” of thinking I find relevant in pedagogy that guides the common good of educating our children in this country.
I’d tell every student that is watching the confirmation hearings of nominee Judge Ketanji Jackson for the Supreme Court to remember their critical thinking skills….especially the subskills of compare and contrast.
To watch this morning the two senators Lindsey Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse and then compare and contrast them is an excellent task for learning.
Sen Graham…a buffoon. Histrionics, hyperbole, rudeness, poor listening skills, inability to reframe a statement correctly… Difficult to watch without squirming or gritting teeth. Embarrassing for America, in my opinion.
Sen Whitehouse….a dog with a bone. He makes no bones about dark money in politics and that it has shaped the present court. He also makes no bones about suggesting nefarious intent of some of his colleagues.
I would ask my students also what regard they hold for Judge Jackson. The high regard you mention, Ellie, is the most outstanding characteristic of this nominee.
How fortunate your students were to have you as their teacher! Sen.Whitehouse reminds me of another of his colleagues - Katie Porter with her charts & graphs that so clearly painted a picture.
As you reference the threats to our freedoms looming, I reference a response that I find quite provocative in its approach and typical of our younger gens.
Apparently no fly zone for oily Russian oligs not established in West Palm Beach, FL. This is reported to have been the day (March 19, 2022) that gov DeSantis happening to visit Mar-a-Lago.
It is quite interesting what details that young global tech rebels of “Technya”, as some refer to them, are following and dispersing to social media. I understand from speaking with some of them locally (some of this kind have been former students and they speak frankly) that they consider it “alt humanitarian warfare”. A most prolific example is the impact that the group Anonymous is making. I find myself with a strange regard for these efforts. I see how there can be examples of two sides of the coin…Light and dark. At the same time, I have a great respect for technology and science threading throughout our history. If not used as an altar, it is an amazing tool of discovery and communication. Many of the clear-eyed younger gens are using the tool backed by what I consider compassionate and humanitarian values. They will not be deterred.
I don’t know how she can keep her poise as she is interrogated by several Republicans. The questioning and commentary by Kennedy from Louisiana was particularly offensive. I couldn’t believe how many times he said how impressed he was as by how “articulate” she was. He would never comment on how articulate a white person is!
Too bad the republican scary clowns are not thoughtful and well spoken. Their stupid, inane remarks,meant for Faux News, say so much more about how pathetic they are than they say about Judge Jackson.
The most offensive thing about Senator Kennedy's cornpone attitude and his white patriarchal patronization is that he, of all the collective dimbulbs in the Senate, ought to know better.
Kennedy is, after all, a former Rhodes Scholar; his deep South affectations are all for the base--total put-on--and it is disgusting in the extreme, I must say.
Kennedy, doesn’t he remind you of a cow chewing its curd? When a white person uses the word “articulate” in their description of a black or brown person, they are simply astonished that someone other than them can speak with any clarity. What a crock!
If Kennedy wasn't play-acting with his base in mind, he would be fairly articulate--he is a former Rhodes Scholar and the cornpone act is exactly that--an act.
Isn’t it beyond absurd how voters choose the most superficial, shallow people on the planet to make important decisions that affect everyone, well mostly everyone?!
Out of all those R scammers - Sen Sasse & even Sen Lee stood out. Not of course that they would ever come down on the side of Judge Jackson, but at least they seemed to actually think & ask questions - not accusations.
Did not see Sen. Kennedy nor Hawley's interrogations - didnt miss them. Caught a video of Sen.Cottons. The contrast between Dems & repubs couldnt have been sharper. Kennedy's whining about the Chairman's so-called editorializing was laughable - and Sen. Durban made that clear. Each of the Dems "editorializing" made very clear the "other sides" deliberate scams.
Sort of the picture "if they go low, we go high"!! Which I grant doesnt always work, but it sure does in her case - she certainly comes out on the high side of these jerks.(polite title)
As I noted in yesterday's thread before closing down, I had just had the curious experience of seeing criminals questioning a judge.
Our world turned upside down.
No one and no place on Earth will be safe for as long as this state of affairs continues. The future of free people everywhere will be under threat for as long as these men stay free to strut and subvert.
If they have their way, America's system of justice will go the way of Putin's courts, tightly following the dictates of the Executive -- THEIR Executive, shoehorned in against the wishes of the people -- through perjured rubber-stamp judges.
Yes, criminals questioning a judge and my reaction too when president Zelensky spoke (remotely) to Congress and those hypocritical republicans stood and clapped. Through their cult and undying support for trump, IMO they have blood on their hands regarding Ukraine.
I don't disagree; but I'm not sure I think it was the election of tfg. The "audacity" of the American people electing a Black man is what tore the scab off the poorly healed wound of enslavement and instead of a healing wound, opened up an infected and pus-ridden injury crawling to the light of day (or riding down a golden escalator).
Peter. Also rubber stamped governors. I question if my eyes are seeing correctly when I read such an article referenced below appearing in my newspaper this morning. I’m surprised the dang paper did not erupt in flame.
And, when it comes to Dark Money, and to corporate interests working to sideline recourse to civil juries, I found it painfully enlightening.
I'm reminded of that old joke about the New York police being "the best that money can buy".
And if I were one of the Justices who was a beneficiary (?) of such activity -- especially if I took my oath of office seriously -- I'd be squirming in discomfort at this kind of publicity... that I might be regarded by anyone as "the best judge that money can buy".
I'd be squirming, yet firmly resolved to let my judgment be guided by my conscience and understanding alone, never by the money spent on raising me to the Bench.
A judge must be free and beholden to no outside influence.
In Bruges, Belgium, there are horrific paintings by Gerard David: The Judgment of Cambyses. I am sure many judges will be familiar with these. So they should be.
As far as I'm concerned, the Republican Party is a white supremacist political association.
Moreover, the GOP has no interest in governing or helping this country.
The GOP mantra is power for power's sake, which is why instead of concentrating on viable policy solutions, these feckless neoconfederates prefer hot-button, nonsensical issues like CRT, book-banning, and the like.
If this pack of jackels regains electoral power in 2022 and 2024, the country is doomed.
But mainly because of misrepresentation in Congress & the Electoral College. Throw in propaganda media like Fox & Sinclair +++ & the unregulated dark money manipulation allowed in the U.S. & the extreme fundamentalism that many churches have sunk to & we have a country that is stymied by an extremist minority controlling the majority.
Yes, there are some denominations that would quite happily like to see contraception made unavailable, interracial and gay marriage illegal, etc. It would suit their narrow brand of white, male, “Christian” supremacy, forcing their (God-ordained) beliefs on others.
Correct me if I'm wrong in any way here, but I found the religion line of comments by L. Graham particularly lame. The Catholic religion DOES have rules that conflict with our laws. That's the reason Barrett was questioned the way she was, why religion came up. If she's a Catholic, she is probably against abortion. It's relevant. I can't think of an instance where being protestant would be relevant. You are not REQUIRED to believe anything.
You are correct that there are certain conflicts. However a savvy questioner finds other ways to ask questions. A person could have a tightly held moral belief, apart from a religious belief, that could also be an obstacle.
European’s perspective of the Ugly American is becoming more widely accepted by Americans at large. Recognizing that how the rest of the world sees us, is not off base; comes as an awakening
We are all judged by the behaviors of the GOP, until such time as the GOP dissolves
Yes, and when that happens, 74 million white supremacists will be delighted. The 74 million are the problem. Republican politicians get their votes by espousing beliefs held in common with the 74 million.
The hearings today for the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson, that should be a celebration, were heartbreaking. I cannot believe the lack of respect and civility by the repubs during their grilling of a most qualified candidate. She was dignified, patient, articulate and prepared. Blatant racism and harassment, hours of asking the same questions, by what appeared to be a practiced and orchestrated plan by a party afraid of change and losing their control. CRT and leniency in sentencing were big topics. Hours of repub attack. And more tomorrow. Gratitude to Dem senators who questioned with respect and genuine interest. What a contrast. I’m not sure I want to spend another day in front of the screen, except to show my support. What strength Judge Brown Jackson must have to not just walk out. But she’s a professional, highly experienced and educated and no doubt, been here before. America 2022 on display.
sen Tom Cotton was the worst. The unmasked look of hate on his face was appalling. All I can say is that Judge Jackson did not wither a bit under his gaze. She even allowed a few pauses and returned a gaze with compassion.
“ The unmasked look of hate on his face was appalling. “
Didn’t have a chance to watch yesterday, too much going on at home, but I am convinced you are correct. The racists in Congress looking at her are constantly going through severe mental contortions in their head: “How do I criticize and attack her, in a society which will butcher me if I say something too obviously racist.”
That article concludes with Sen. Durbin's heartfelt and touching response to Sen. Booker:
After Booker wrapped up his time, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) took a moment to talk about Booker and his ability to bring out the emotional side in people.
“There are a lot of politicians on this committee, 22 of them,” Durbin said. “There’s only one Cory Booker. And when he does his cross-examination on the human side, I always wait and see, can the witness get through this without a little emotion? There was a little there, as there should’ve been, as he talked about your family and your parents and your children.”
“Cory, you’re one of a kind,” Durbin added. “We love you.”
I agree Christine. It sounded to me like either he was pushing for police state, or trying to get Judge Jackson to make one wrong step so he could accuse her of wanting it.
I have remained disgusted by Cotton, ever since he led the gang of 46 (46 R Senators) in signing that letter to the government of Iraq in 2015, as so much spittle on President Obama's efforts at negotiation.
Cotton is no patriot nor is he what Claremont Institute's Glen Ellmers' essay calls "authentic Americans' (In Ellmers opinion, only a minority of citizens--those from the 'heartland' (i.e. Bible Belt) are what he chillingly calls "authentic Americans") regardless of the state Cotton supposedly represents.
I was driving while listening to Ted Cruz (probably not the safest combination!) go on and on down a line of "questioning" that was dubious at best and overall appalling. My visual of him is always the devil incarnate. Judge Brown Jackson should have been confirmed on the spot!
At this point, we all should know exactly what’s coming whenever anyone other than a white man is being considered for a position of authority. Attacks. Racism, sexism, and if there’s an opening for it, gender identity opposition. The R (acism) Party is so completely predictable. I knew with complete conviction what type of behavior would show up for these hearings. You have an African-American woman, and on top of that, she’s married to a white man. What comes next out of these mongrels is to be expected.
The thing about black people is that it's not their first rodeo. While white people don't see this blatant racism very often (unless you're a republican lawmaker or a racist), they are used to it in their daily lives, so sad and wrong but true. I have many times been shocked at how a black person would roll their eyes and shake their heads while faced with racist behavior while I, rarely having seen it, would be about to implode. Still, I wish I had her cell number so I could text "You go girl!" to her! I got so depressed by Graham, Hawley, Cruz, et al. but then had to force myself to think of her strength and intelligence, as well as the respect of the Dem senators, in order to feel more positive about the whole thing.
Sometimes, like today, I feel like crawling in a hole and hibernating. If only there were a safe hole to climb into. Ukraine is a 12-hour car trip away.
I'm looking out at a sunny, peaceful city, all the way to the Taunus Mountains, which is where the mighty Roman army, on their way to conquer the rest of the land to the North Sea, was stopped by the german Kelts - fierce tribes that held the line. I think of the colonial patriots.
I think - every minute - of the heroic Ukrainians.
Rosalind, I am with you! I think of the plight of the brave Ukrainian people every day, every minute. And of how it is impossible to understand how some members of the Republican party cannot support the Ukrainian cause!
I sent an email to Senator Braun in support of the nomination of Judge Brown Jackson. In response he wrote of his concerns “ nominees for judicial branch posts who have a long history of liberal activism and hold views well outside of the mainstream. The role of a Supreme Court justice should be to interpret and apply our Constitution, not to reshape our country by legislating from the bench.” Per usual, I found his “concerns” deceitful and hypocritical.
It's to interesting that you wrote this. I was thinking that these people represent racists, sexists, homophobes, terrorists, and religious fanatics. The question is, do they represent more voters than the rest of us and will America become a dystopian society.
I believe the 2020 Election answered that question. Even more so, the January 5, 2021, special election for the 2 Georgia Senate seats. (also the 2018 midterms, the California Blue Wave election, is a bellwether for where the whole country is headed imnsho, im not-so-humble o).
trump is the backlash to the Obamas in the White House, Biden is the reaction to trump, and now the question is, what comes next. Do we keep going back-and-forth, between the racists and the real people (the “radical liberals”), or do we finally land permanently in the diverse, democratic society, like in California?
Me too, but CA could secede along with other open-minded, fair states. Remember the guy from L A who brought that up years ago? It could be a reality someday.
Clarence Thomas, of all people, has been bitching in public about the Supreme Court swinging too far one way (democratic/liberal). I can’t believe that loser ever made it onto the court, he is such a pathetic excuse for a human being
He knows how to repeat the bull Schitt and pile it higher. They are experts in demagoguery. When will they be called out for the traitors the have become. Not as long as Rupert is our Goebbels…
Though I feel it would be an exercise in futility, I may do just that. It would ensure he never responds to me again, as is the case with my Representatives.
Hoped. Not expected. I think confirming a SCOTUS member is serious. I just don't get the un-serious members of the GOP Judiciary Committee. Putting party before country strikes me as being an instant disqualifier for the position. If only McConnell and FOX could see it that way too.
So instead of listening with empathy to the concerns of a constituent, he sends back a letter full of bombast and bloviation about issues that have been drummed up to rouse the base. What an arse.
I wouldn't have been able to restrain myself from sending him a letter emblazoned with the words of the soldiers guarding Ukraine's Snake Island.
I have found that when presented with opposing view politely and succinctly, they just stop responding. I keep my views in their in boxes, but they no longer respond to me.
Carla, you’re a better person than me if you can contact that greaseball’s office. Here’s to you, and to everyone else here who makes the calls and writes the emails to the racists 🥂
I really wish I had been wrong decades ago. In the 90’s I watched Newt and newly hatched Fox use Lee Atwater’s evil screeds to malign all Democrats. In 2000, I watched W/Dickie steal the election with aid from James Baker and Roger Stone. Then rule like they had a mandate; no compromise there, although Teddy K. tried. Well, on to 2008 when, W/Dickie had trashed our international standing and our economy. Then watched McCain choose Palin and trash Obama as socialist and blame him for all their failures with great success. (This was the same McCain who had been in primary against Bush in 2000. I watched as the Bush crowd told the most egregious lies about McCain. A reporter asked how they could conduct such an obvious smear campaign and one of the perps said, “We go to church on Sunday and get forgiven.”). I skip to 2012 when Obama (still alive by some miracle) won, and the conventional wisdom was that republicans needed to get real and appeal to a more diverse electorate. Well, watched them double down on the propaganda that Fox had been pushing since it’s day one. (I know because my best friend’s family had it on literally 24/7 from it’s inception and it blasted vitriol no matter the hour and I had a front row seat.). We all know what happened next. The Republican party has been trying to destroy our democracy for half a century. Jennifer Rubin called it right. The Grand Ole Party died long ago. The zombie apocalypse lives…
Jeri, what a timeline. And what comes next is anybody's guess. It seems we’re too afraid to guess. And act on stopping the moving train. Howard Zinn wrote, “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train.” He’s now departed, but he would be telling us to stand up and speak out. The train is out of control.
GOP claims about a doctrine of State's Rights is bogus nomenclature, there is no doctrine, it is simply the 'My way or no way' autocratic doctrine with an Orwellian justification. Where was the State's Rights doctrine when cities and states wanted stricter Covid mandates like masking or vaccinations, or environmental rules like California's gas mileage rules or a shift to EVs, or deciding what to teach in schools and the Trumpists GOP clowns did everything it could to strangle states' decisions like withholding Congressionally appropriated money? The alarming thing is that many of these clowns (Cruz, Hawley and Braun) are lawyers, they know better! Disgraceful!
Those 3 took the Hypocritical Oath when they bought their way into the bar. You know, the one that declares justice will be the first victim in court. They had a couple shots at the bar and then staggered out to seek their fortunes. That’s where they met some Russian dudes.
Braun has a MBA from Harvard. Hopefully his statement will be remembered when he is up for re-election. I have found contacting my senators (Braun &Young) very depressing.
It's hard to imagine how much more toxic the Republican part has become since the 2012 opinion piece Heather referenced titled, "Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem." by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein. The damage done by Gingrich and Norquist alone is monumental and will likely follow us well into the future.
Daria, thanks for the link. I read their "It's Even Worse Than It Looks" from back at the same time--still worth a look--but the short-form distillation in the op-ed hits all the high notes.
Good morning, daria, hope all is well with you. Just noticing, I don't see a single post from TC today. I know you read his substack as well (its been suggested to me often, I haven't gotten around to it as I have my friend who introduced me to this forum sends tons of reading material to me daily, along with my own forays down the internet rabbit hole) I am wondering if you stuck a nerve, which might not be a bad thing--we can all use constructive criticism upon occasion---or if things are honestly dire with him. I hope not.
Hi Miselle, All is well here, I hope the same for you. I haven't seen remarks from TC today, but I doubt I struck a chord with him. Maybe he's simply simmered down a bit. I don't regularly read his substack but I don't think he's posted yet today. Like you, I hope things are not dire on the home front.
This says it all, ¨A full decade ago, in April 2012, respected scholars Thomas Mann, of the Brookings Institution, and Norm Ornstein, of the American Enterprise Institute, crunched the numbers and concluded: “The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. When one party moves this far from the mainstream,” they wrote, “it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.”
And yet, in the last decade, the party has moved even further to the right. Now it is not only calling for an end to the civil rights protections that undergird modern America, but also lining up behind a leader who tried to overthrow our democracy. A column by Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post yesterday was titled: “Fringe Republicans are not the problem. It’s the party’s mainstream.”
They are the judges and grudge holders of Salem during the witch trials.
Yes, yes, yes! It’s a horror show. “impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.” What’s next is scary to think about.
Well, for the first 3 1/2 years of the Trump administration, they kept politely tiptoeing around. But finally now everyone is calling out lies and using the word “lies.” We have to give them a little bit of credit, before we accuse them again of being terrible, which they still are.
It has been a long time coming…I feared the worst twenty years ago when the white steepled formerly Congregational church in my then hometown of 600 in Vermont got a new pastor who declared no women could speak in Services and none could fail to use their husband‘s names…or Ms.. . In Vermont! „Christian“ Radio droned on crowding the airwaves around NPR, The worst of the Supreme Court Justices turn out to have been to law school at Harvard or Yale.
I’m just so tired of watching and listening to these yahoos acting like their some kind of Keystone Kops vampire hunters running around making sure they have a wooden stake in their hands at all times to pound in the hearts of liberal “sinners.” They just keep climbing out of their clown car dragging more oppressive ideas along with them. They don’t appear to read for meaning. I’ve yet to hear any of them give an accurate explanation of what CRT actually is. It has the word race in it. That’s about as far as any of them get. Durban was right—Trial by Ordeal, Judge Brown Jackson was a model of composed and cogent thoughts, and gave on the mark responses to some ridiculous questions.
I don’t believe judging from the books I’ve read on the subject, we often have towers of intellect sitting in Congress, but I think we may had had groups of people who were there to govern. These guys! They need to go back and take a remedial civics class. They have no business sitting in my bedroom, legislating my choices in sleeping partners. No business sitting in my womb. No business telling me who I can love. My problem is I can’t understand why they care about these things. I’d like my roads fixed, my pipes clean, a working supply chain, access to good healthcare, to go to an event and feel like I’ll get home at night. And peace in our time. These things seem to me to more about making things great, than rabble rousing about some theory they can’t give a definition for. The Party of No, the Right’s just Wrong. I hope they find that the loud folks hollering for “the good old days” are a very small part of their support. And there will be fewer of them come January.
You must think that CRT still refers to a legal theory about structural racism. For Republicans, it now refers to any thinking critical of racism or of white supremacy.
Yeah... the words "critical" and "race" seem to mean something entirely different to them. Shows the level of their ability to think (dare I say) critically about anything.
Well here we are with senator Braun leading us forward, into the past. Following his lead we will march straight into 1858, when all was ‘right’ with the world, if you were a white, propertied male. And if you weren’t, we’ll that’s just your bad luck for being born that way. And senator Blackburn should be careful, lest she gets what she’s hoping for. Back in the good old days of the antebellum South, women had no rights, either — they couldn’t vote, let alone become US senators in the America she and Braun and the GOP wish to return to. Back then women didn’t have to worry the pretty little old heads with men’s stuff like politics or finance or business. I, for one, find the past the GOP longs for a dystopian nightmare, one we must work hard to prevent becoming reality.
"forward, into the past" is not my original. I remember it from Firesign Theater -- it was a song on one of their early albums and the title of their 1976 compilation album. It is a great line, isn't it.
Heather, I watched a good deal of the hearing. I think you captured a great deal of the roller coaster ride -- from the inspired and inspiring testimony of Justice Brown Jackson, to the hateful and divisive inquisitions launched by Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham. With civil liberties under escalating attack from the Republican Party -- mainstream and fringe -- this country is in increasing danger of fracturing.
Good job. Your outrage here is clear, well written and appropriate. Thank you.
Calling out those, apparently many, who would be comfortable currying favor with Hitler is the right approach and ripping on them in communication is the way to fight.
Also, I personally recommend that you choose a place outside the country (Canada, Greece, Uruguay are good options) and make sure you can go there on short notice.
No, I am not joking and yes, my wife and I have put that in place for us and our kids.
If America returns to the days when it is legal to hold down a war veteran in a jail and stab his eyes out with a night stick, we are gone.
All those poor boys from the north and the south who fought in the civil war and died? For what? Here we are again.
In the midst of weariness of bigger and bigger threats looming to our autonomy and civil rights in a democratic country, tonight I'll take the smile at seeing Heather's lower case disdain for "justice Clarence Thomas," as she uses for former "president Trump," while holding full and righteous regard for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Amen. In the meantime, one has to wonder how stupid Mike Braun thinks the public are. The absolutely clear message of his original statement in re Loving was unmitigated racism. You can't walk that kind of in your face bigotry back. I'm gobsmacked.
Why on earth do republicans like Mike Braun think they should be able to control people’s intimate behavior, but corporations in the public square can run amuck all over everyone? Why is it anyone else’s damn business if someone decides to use birth control or other intimate behavior? Talk about freedom; let’s discuss unrestrained GREED for money, power, and control.
Let's face it-they're pushing this agenda now that the Federalist Society has bought the conservative members of SCOTUS. Those members have been doing their best to kick almost everything back to the states and are IGNORING the Federal Supremacy clause in the Constitution. So much for "originalism".
We can thank the reactionary sociopath Leonard Leo
Hi Roland. Referencing what I’ve learned from HCR over the past year, why do you think it’s called the Federalist rather than the Antifederalist Society? Isn’t this the same contest that dates back prior to the ratification of our Constitution?
Russia is a federation. I don't want to be part of anything that smacks of Russia.
Roland!! 👋🏻
Saint Scalia was such an originalist that he rewrote the second amendment to fit the gun lobby demands!
Specifically, control of society. The power to control the laws, to bring back the Stone Age society of whites first, men first, straights first, and everyone else persecuted. If I didn’t have my dad and our years of conversations, I wouldn’t understand this thinking (auto-correct wrote down “the stinking,” probably more to the point).
This has long been my husband's observation about the Rs and we both find it repulsive.
VOTE THEM OUT!
VOTE INTELLIGENTLY!
DO IT!
Mine too
They get dark money, and I am sure lots of it! They are related to Putin! Or maybe we might say in bed with Putin!
Republicans are all for “Family Values” as long as they’re theirs alone.
Daria I too am gobsmacked by this unmitigated racism. I would be delighted to contribute to a fund to provide DNA tests of all southern members of Congress. Through DNA it was found that many of Thomas Jefferson’s progeny had Black ancestors. According to Mary Chestnut’s Civil War diary, this was also true of numerous ‘distinguished’ southern families.
Since, under historical southern racial laws, one drop of Black blood renders a person Black, I would imagine that a number of southern members of Congress should be proud that a highly qualified Black woman soon will be voted onto the Supreme Court.
And aren't the peculiar questions and/or rantings of the southern white men on the senate panel extraordinary in this day and time? Maybe being televised so FOX can play clips to Trump's base isn't such a great public service.
By design
If cotton and blackburn and lindsey graham and all the others took DNA tests, they would be like Lady Macbeth, in the shower constantly trying unsuccessfully to wash the blackness out.
Roland If they were unsuccessful in washing the blackness out, perhaps they would realize that Black Is Beautiful.
Keith, ❤️❤️❤️
Black is certainly an evolutionary protection. When we heat the earth to resemble hell, maybe whities will decide that tanning beds just won’t do it.
Tanning beds. Honest to God, what utter folly and madness. White people don't understand that tanning doesn't increase the production of eumelanin but increases Skin DNA photodamage significantly. Another disconnect from reality.
❤️❤️
Indeed.
Very unfortunate that they were born without a "shame" gene
If they knew anything about ancient DNA, they would know there is no such thing as lily white.
Another form of their bigotry, Eh!?
Even in Jefferson's time people were aware of his children by Sally Hemming. Since her grandfather and father were white (she was Jefferson's wife's half sister), it must have been obvious to those visiting Monticello. It was used to criticize him publicly. The DNA wasn't enough for his white descendants to allow people from this liaison to be buried in the Jefferson cemetery. I don't know if this has changed or not. Southern women were well aware of trips out to the slave quarters. And we have the whole phenomenon of "passing".
Michele After DNA proved conclusively the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemming extended relationship, I recall reading of a reunion of this mixed Jefferson ‘family.’ I don’t know if any Jeffersons refused to associate with the Hemming branch.
Lucian Truscott IV called that meeting, and it pissed off some Jefferson descendants and Monticello docents. I subscribe to Lucian’s substack page, TCinLA turned me on to him. Click on my profile photo.
Here is the story of that fascinating event
https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/you-cant-rewrite-history-that-is-1d9?s=r
Roland
What a marvelous insight to history by Lucian Truscott IV (seems like an uncommonly fine individual). Obviously some of the Jeffersons were less than thrilled to meet their Hemming ‘cousins.’ And the docent who blamed Truscott for destroying everything by seeking to get the expansive Jefferson/Hemming family together—-as a long-time docent, my reaction is that he/she is a docent living in a time warp.
Hey, Roland. My "heart" doesn't work. So ❤❤!
Thank you for this link, Roland. I've known of the Hemmings, of course, but loved reading Lucian Truscott's beautifully and righteously written piece. As I think you know, I too am from a black/white family, both side. I wish I could subscribe, but in this critical election year, that is where I feel I must donate what I can spare this year. I have snagged the link, though, so that if I repost, the attribution will go to Lucian as it should.
I haven't kept up with this. Thanks for the update. I do wonder about burial in the Jefferson cemetery. Have they relented on that?
Reading the post below, I now remember reading about Lucian Truscott IV.
This may be new news to Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and the others making veiled accusations of our newest SCOTUS nominee. To say nothing of Gym Jordan, Mo Brooks and David Purdue. Otherwise, how to explain their rants (aka concerns)?
Genealogy can prove that all the racist bull Schitt is just that. It will make fools of the foolish, educate the ignorant, but can’t do a damn thing for the greedy, stupid bastards with their power agenda.
Often not said is that Jefferson’s mistress, Sally Hemings, was also his wife’s half-sister.
Yes, and i have often wondered if that was part of attraction.
In th e early 70’s the Ranger came out to my work station on Lolo Creek. He had a fellow with him that I was already familiar with. This fellow was to have my job because we needed to integrate the workplace. Six foot five Michael Ray Richardson and I had shared a locker room at U of M. Unbeknownst to the world we also had a wrestling team. He was a super star stellar athlete. I was just an athlete. He said he wouldn’t take my job if would cause me grief. I liked him pretty much so I helped him get things figured out that first week. A week went by and the ranger called me in to come hold down the station as ole Sugar Ray got lonesome 40 miles from town. I was glad to have my job back. That old ranger came back with a woman in tow and before he could say a word I said “Wait a minute here, she’s not black!” Yup we needed women too. I quit him then but not race or gender wise. My dream job had come through at the Jump Base in Missoula. I remember trying to be mad but I couldn’t really get anything going.
Sounds like a good idea. Many marriages among the members of Congress would turn out to be interracial. What then?
Yes, Senator Braun and his remarks cannot be taken back nor forgotten. The GOPs march backward to pre-Civil War days continues. Now interracial marriage and desegregated schools are out there on this party's chopping block. How dangerous are these days? No one can afford to not pay attention.
To Sen Braun and the pseudo lawmakers: “Senator, you’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, Have you left no sense of decency? Joseph Welch
quite a few Americans appear to be of his ilk.
Somewhere around 45%. Everyone who voted for reelection in 2020.
Good point Roland. It’s about 44% of Americans that hold “creation” as a Worldview. That means we are more religiously radical than Turkey! And btw, per capita the US is more armed than Yemen. Let that those two facts sink in for a moment.
Sadly, I have more friends like that than I would care to admit, and most of them have kids in school too. Those kids are at risk of school shootings. Their kids. My kids. All of our kids. And we choose as a country to do nothing. What a disgrace. Just another example of looking at the metrics of murder, of kids, at school, and only in 'merica we falsely believe "nothing can be done".
So sad
Big UGH
Mainstream repubs love it, that’s the point.
Jeri, I agree but would add that I think the line that separates Far Right Radical Republicans from "mainstream" Republicans is just about gone. Braun and Blackburn are only a breath away from the oldest turtle in the pond, McConnell. While we were all padding Amazon's bank account and wallowing in the convenience of buying toilet paper in bulk without leaving the house, the world was changing, the balance of power shifting. Did I see it or even have a vague sense of discomfort? Maybe, but by then it was already too late. I don't see the way back. Thank you for pointing out that the mainstream, a word much in use, hardly exists anymore. As you say, they love it.
Dean I delight in your reference to ‘the oldest turtle in the pond, McConnell,’ though I have never seen a chinless turtle. He has a bevy of shameless snapping turtles in his swamp. I have a craving for turtle soup, if anyone knows how to really clean those suckers.
Clean them? Not possible.
Keith, I'm always thrilled to find someone who appreciates the rich language of my Deep South (Alabama, Georgia) homeland.
You are on a roll!😂
Marlene Skewering Republicans is like shooting clay pigeons at 15 feet or fishing with a hand grenade. So easy that it quickly becomes boring, until I bore once again into these boring blackguards.
(to go w/the turtle soup? LOL!)
Time for this if any “mainstream” R’s interested “This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but to come to the aid of their country.” Eugene McCarthy.
I'll bet I'm not alone when I confess that some mornings I wake up and still miss Eugene McCarthy.
And they all lament the way downtown used to be. I also know people who should know better who buy from Amazon. We won't if we can help it. And now we have that loathsome ad on TV in the wedding party.
I don't watch tv, so I have at least been spared the wedding party ad. But re: the ethics of shopping with Amazon. I resisted for many many years but I woke up one day and was 75 years old, with a collapsing spine and lungs that were working badly, and I couldn't drive. I have a friend who does grocery pickup and takes me to medical appointments , but when it came right down to a choice between living with a violation of my No-Amazon Ethics Code and re-useable bamboo paper towels at bulk prices, delivered to my door in two days, I decided in about two seconds. I literally cringe every time I place an order and am aware that my moral distaste helps no-one. I also know that my struggles about shopping or not-shopping with Amazon are very much First World Problems, but I'm afraid that we earnest liberals and socialists have done a great deal more damage than buying toilet paper from Jeff Bezos. Still, I shop, I cringe, I am aware. The terrible thing about all this is that, if we could have had this conversation even four decades ago, it might have made a difference. Today I am grateful to Dr. Richardson for posting these remarkable essays and providing a space of women and men of good faith to share their thoughts in an open forum.
I'm putting this Braun right next to that political stupidity out of tennessee - blackburn...
Indiana, my home state. Tennessee, the state where I’ve lived most of my adult life. Sigh.
Indiana is my home state also....sigh. I live happily in Oregon.
Rjs Only at the Bs! It will be a long senatorial political stupidity list. And then on to the stupids in the House!
Yes you are correct …. Seems to be a collective mindset
Yes, Rjs, it's great that you used a lower case b for the first letter of blackburn's name. I recommend you do the same with braun's last name.
You shouldn't be, Sen. Braun believes the public to be every bit as stupid as he is.
So true... I know better.. These politicians are increasing their noise. It's very dangerous and I am outraged
Braun and others do this all the time. They let their base know that they share their racism and will work to impose it by law, but then deny it to deflect the inevitable backlash.
But make no mistake, they are coming for us — Heather shined a bright light on their agenda. And reading today's installment, I immediately thought of my interracial marriage, which would was illegal in our home state of Oregon until 1951.
I write from Victoria, British Columbia, where we're wrapping up a tour of universities here and in Vancouver that our son, Atticus, might attend. In June, he visits schools in Montreal and Toronto. He's attracted to education and life in a diverse and civil society.
Best wishes to Atticus! I hope he attends the school of his choice. Too, I hope his experience in Canada will be far better than what he's grown up with in the US.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Republicans are interested in promoting as much racism as possible. The things they fly up the flagpole to get a quick read of public sentiment gets more outrageous by the day.
But they DO think the public is that stupid! After all, it elects people like Braun and many others, especially locally.
I am no longer gob smacked, I expect it. I know it’s coming. But I certainly understand your shock and amazement and dismay, Daria
Roland, what shocks, amazes and dismays me is the ever more pernicious lengths these people go to in order to wreck the Union!
They are so utterly committed to the white male society. Relentlessly, deeply committed. Look what happened in the 2000 presidential election in Florida. They pulled out everything, every slimy maneuver, to force the outcome of putting Bush in the WH.
What has changed is that you and I are no longer OK with that. Voter suppression, abortion rights, civil rights, MeToo, George Floyd, all front page news every day. Everyone who can read is paying attention, and that is a beautiful thing for justice and democracy. January 6 is etched in stone now. Everyone in this country, and I do mean everyone who isn’t burying their head in the sand, knows the drill. The turnout in November 2020 broke all records because everyone in the country knows the stakes now. Democracy 🌹 or death ☠️
Remember California, Daria. The 2018 blue wave election washed through Orange County, the racist bastion that gave us Reagan and Schwarzenegger, and now the Republican Party no longer has any significant power in the state. Democratic supermajorities in every department. The racists have been completely marginalized, they no longer matter politically. In danger of extinction, no power. (after the California 2018 midterms, someone remarked, “you can fit all the Republican House members in a minivan.“)
As goes California, so eventually goes the nation. As goes the two miraculous Georgia Senate seats, so goes the South, eventually. Democracy and diversity will prevail. The writing is on the wall. That’s the way I see it.
Roland, I truly hope, with all my heart, that you are right. The anger, disappointment and sadness I feel every time I read an article or opinion piece that describes or bolsters the right's intentions to grab more power overwhelms me. I hope you are right.
As a fellow California Democrat (and resident of the OC) I do hope you are right! Although in 2020 the Republicans did manage to regain a seat in this county, let's see what happens in the new districts this year. Katie Porter is looking strong. I want to keep her in Congress, but sadly I am not in her district.
I love Katie Porter so much!! We need more of her. I’d like to see her as a Presidential candidate one day… and Senator Whitehouse would be an excellent running mate.
You would be correct. Given a long enough time line, we win … my concern is that time line …
The Republican cheating has soared to the stratosphere, not a prediction, a reality
I would see it that way too IF so many states hadn't put laws in place that enable Republican-controlled legislatures (and their ilk in offices that administer elections at the county level). That's the thing that scares me the most. A huge turnout electing Democrats in those states will likely have their votes nullified, resulting in never-ending litigation which will further immobilize effective governance.
It’s been done before, many times, hasn’t it? There’s no shame involved in paid performances. Seems like the deep level Federalist Society is intent on un-democratizing our democracy.
They are. And they've been at it since their founding in 1982.
The only explanation -- and it makes sense to me -- is that he is convinced he is not racist (because he knows that's a "bad" thing), so none of his beliefs, attitudes, statements, or actions can possibly be "racist." Because they come from him, you see? And he's NOT a racist. Because that's a bad thing to be.
He doesn't think the public is stupid. He thinks he's smart. And moral. And not a racist.
Bah.
And he is a joke!
Do they really believe that all the “Rights” they want to do away with only affect Democrats ? If that was the case it’s highly unlikely they would be “ Rights “ in the first place.Talk about cutting off you’re nose to spite you’re face.But the more they put both feet in their mouths the less chance they have at winning Elections. This is nuts !
Well, Marcia, here's the thing, Yes, yes they do believe that they personally will be excluded from any purge or revocation of civil/human rights, because they're special. They don't believe that they, their likeminded family or friends will be touched by the madness. It is a puzzlement.
They plan to rule and rulers can protect their own. Ginni Thomas has not a worry.
I live in Indiana and as far as I and many others are concerned both Todd Young and Mike Braun are a disgrace to our state and our country! There are many others sitting in the US Senate that are just like them!
Yes, these cretins that are supposedly representing their constituents which in reality they are doing no such thing, they need to be booted out. We here in Ohio have the execrable Gym Jordan in the House. These people get elected a lot of times by gerrymandering and by voter suppression tactics. If we don't get these voting rights acts passed, our very votes may be seriously compromised.
Indiana is heavily gerrymandered!
Grew up in Indiana. Have family still there. I do understand Politicians just as awful here in Texas…..
daria:
No slip of the tongue for sure. Did anyone take him to task? They will continue doing this until someone does. Once challenged, they will scurry back into their holes in the ground.
Like Joseph Welch to Joe McCarthy. Can’t find republican decency with a microscope. Five minutes of the hearing is proof
Being from Indiana and hearing a chorus of racism growing up, I'm not. Keep in mind that Indiana had the largest number of KKK members in the 1920s and that nonsense is not gone. I remember a friend of mine from southern Indiana (Bedford) saying the racism was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. And that hasn't changed. Also a lot of them are knee jerk Rs. I have another friend who lives just south of Indy and she likes to joke about being different by being a D.
I lived in south central Indiana (Bloomington) for 9 years. I always heard that Martinsville, just up the road apiece on the way to Indy, was the "birthplace" of the KKK, at least in Indiana. Bloomington was one of those college-town blue "islands" in that part of the state, so it tended to look askance at the seas of "red" that surrounded it. It is an area that was apparently heavily settled by people originally from Appalachia, especially rural Brown county (just to the east of Bloomington and Monroe county), which is one of the only "mountainous" areas in the entire Midwest. (It prompts the question: "Why do hills seem to attract rednecks?"...y'know??) One can even hear vestiges of this in the accents and speech patterns one finds there. Coming there from Georgia in 1976, I guess it wasn't SO different from the area I grew up in, but I was struck, even then, by how fiercely conservative the area was. I can't imagine what it's like now.
I hear you. My friend from Bedford told me about Martinsville. And although I am from Indiana, I do not have the Hoosier twang as I grew up in Elkhart to the far north. All my Indy cousins have it and my sister's family although she would have had to acquire it along the way. Indy and south....and it is like Appalachia in culture and speech. My friend also told me that there were places in certain Indiana counties there that she would not go.
Michele Per capita the ratio of KKK members in NJ in the 1920s was quite high. Even where we go on the North Fork of Long Island, there was a second floor room in the village auditorium where KKK held meetings. I recall hearing that the KKK even paraded in Washington. Fortunately, the KKK leader was such an ass hole that the movement faltered—but its embers are still glowing today.
I am not surprised. The KKK was strong here in Oregon in the legislature in the 1920s. Their ire was directed at Catholics since Oregon was not at all friendly to blacks and even now we do not have a large population. And the KKK burned a cross in the yard of a Catholic in Niles, Michigan....this from a person whose grandfather suffered this indignity. I also heard lots of biased talk about Catholics growing up. Then there was the prejudice against Native Americans in my husband's paternal grandmother. As it happens through his mother he has Lakota ancestors. We became engaged while we were in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and she was worried that I might be black. When we first met, her initial comment reflected on my weight... beautiful in Sierra Leone, but not here and i wish I still weighed that....my husband was offended. I thought it was funny.
This is a chilling podcast from This American Life about a
closeted kkk cop in Muskegon MI. It is scary and unbearably sad that these people walk among us and freely dispense their cruelty.
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/760/a-city-walks-into-an-investigation
The episode I referenced was in Niles, Mi, which is not that far from Muskegon. One of my uncles was from Muskegon and evidenced the racism that is there. This is a conservative part of Michigan historically.
KKK was also very active in Maine in the 1920s, targeting Catholics and immigrants with violence, burned down a church.
Gobsmacked and stunned! I sometimes wonder if I am living in a parallel universe!
Not a parallel universe. We live in a universe that through the ages has produced, along with good people, murderers and liars as well, some of whom often have taken charge of things. When everyone else wises up and boots them out, they crawl back into their holes, only to later re-emerge and again take charge, until they are again booted out, driving them back into their holes, from which they eventually emerge again, and then the whole cycle takes place again, and again, and again. Not a parallel universe; it's the universe in which we live. How else do you explain Biblical stonings, crucifixions, the Inquisition, human slavery, the Holocaust, Rwanda, the Rhohinga genocide, Hitler, Putin, etc. along with those, too many to name, capable of producing the brilliance of the Enlightenment and the Renaissance?
I’d like to share here, Ellie, Senator Cory Booker’s questioning of Judge Jackson late in the day yesterday. Will not get the coverage that senators Cruz, Hawley, and Cotton got or Blackburn today, but I certainly wish it to be so.
I am posting it because it soothed and tempered my outrage at what was on display yesterday from the clown car. Such vitriol and barely disguised hatred and fear.
If not moved by the conversation, if you will, between Sen Booker and the Judge, one does not have a love of We the People.
https://youtu.be/C32oMd22DTI
Senator booker’s remarks soothed my soul. After such vitriol from Cruz, Cotton, Hawley and Graham I was ready to gross a brick. Then along comes Booker and my BP came back to normal.
I agree! Booker is my new hero
Yes, I thought Booker was so effective also and he added some much needed normalcy and decency after the embarASSing questions from marsha, josh, teddy, ms. lindsay, and little itty bitty tom.
It was, indeed, balm for the heart and soul. There is SO MUCH to be angry and sad about; it felt good to cry over witnessing truth sown with kindness and humor.
Exactly! Thank you for posting! After 11 hours, I was too tired to watch and happy to have the link this morning. I plan to share the link with friends & family today, as I know many are exhausted by the 'creepy republican questioning.
Hope this sooths their souls as well💙
Thanks so much for posting clip. I applaud Sen. Booker’s generous (and productive?) way of handling Sen. Graham’s predictable line of questioning, despite how privately irritating and disappointing I find the Senator from the south to be these days.
I thought she did well answering all these foolish attempts at gotcha. Since they made no secret of their ploys, she was very prepared.
Hear, hear!
Thanks for passing this on- the attacks and insinuations by Republican senators are shameless.
Thank you Christine - Cory Booker always brings it home!! I'll post this here ... please listen to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's session with Judge Brown-Jackson ... I doubt that anyone will hear it anywhere else - possibly the most important presentation of the day:
WATCH: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse questions Jackson in Supreme Court confirmation hearings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHIc1iOcZGU
Yes Kathleen. He “lightened” with force the subject of dark money.
I can't follow these conversations now, Christine - thank you and others who are up to the task - I will tune in and pitch in when able ... by the way, did you see this?
Damn: A sobering note from Finland about America's role in all of this
Published Saturday by Josh Marshall for Talking Points Memo, an accusation and a plea.
Translated into rough English, from a Finnish TPM member who believes that the U.S. has yet to come to terms with the role we’ve played in providing the backdrop for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. His thesis is that Russia has viewed the U.S. as a “back door” towards weakening Europe and NATO in its reaction to the invasion.
"I understand you would like to see your heroic country as the navel of the world and as the main focus of any operation, but I am sorry to inform that, in this case, you are only cheap tools. You had to be weakened (and Britain manipulated to Brexit etc) in order to facilitate invasions to Ukraine, Belarussia and a list of other neighboring pieces of land in Putin’s future Menu.
"So, as a KGB officer would plan, they came exactly from the opposite direction than where they were expected. They professionally built an operation web among the rural redneck cowboys, evangelical christians, the NRA, the most republican of all republicans, your law enforcement, some military people, big business etc etc. They popped up to the surface from within the “core americans”, but their long dive before that was planned and had started from the Kremlin’s operation board."
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/3/19/2086972/-Damn-A-sobering-note-from-Finland-about-America-s-role-in-all-of-this
Yes Kathleen. I read it with a depth called for. I find it important to include opinion of our country from those that are “looking in” from outside. Revelatory. We are a global world, not merely separated by geopolitical boundaries.
“We the People” means all humans. By the hand of our Creator.
Serious perspective.
Thank you for posting this link! It was a great 30 minute respite from the chorus of deplorable, self serving, racist members of the committee.
Thank you for this link!!
Indeed, Janet!!!
As always, he makes it clear about how SCOTUS has been corrupted by Dark Money. He also did NOT get into the weeds about her rulings. He did clearly point out how important civil juries are-i.e. talking about Juris Prudence itself.
Yes indeed!
Thank you, Kathleen. This link was very informative.
Thank you for posting the link. This is such an enormous, critical, foundational issue we must address.
While I'm at it, here is Brian Tyler Cohen on Blackburn's race agenda:
https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohen/videos/1038760010321953/
It really boggles my mind (and breaks my heart) how adept some people are at speaking politely and pretending to show respect while subtly insulting you and stabbing you in the back ... I wonder if they realize that what they project is what they invite ...?
"... [I]f you are going to say that the states should be able to do as they wish without the federal government protecting civil rights on, say, the issue of abortion, you must entertain the principle that the entire body of decisions in which the federal government protects civil rights, beginning with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ending segregation in the public schools, is illegitimate.
And that is off-the-charts huge."
YES!
It is also "off-the-charts huge" that Heather, you are calling out racism and bigotry for what it is more and more emphatically! In your earlier LFAA, your words were far less pointed about the bigotry committed. And, I must say that I admire that tremendously!
The discrimination, Jim-Crowism, provincialism, unreasonable prejudices, fanaticism, and, quite frankly, injustices, spewed and displayed by the right, have to be called out for what they are: bigoted inequities and putrid moral compasses. They know nothing about ethics, values or life-giving compassion and empathy for they build their fortresses with the mud of disdain.
Good catch, Ellie. And, justice Thomas is still hospitalized with an "infection." He's been receiving intravenous antibiotics. Seems he should be better after 4+ days. What's the truth here?
His “infection” might be named Ginni.
Marcia that’s brilliant 🏆🏆🌺
Thank you, Roland!
❤️
Anyone else hoping it might lead to a new judge appointment? I am not wishing death on him, but is it possible he might decide to step down if his illness is something serious? I know RBG worked with Pancreatic CA, but not sure he is of the same fortitude as she was.
I’ve heard a few rumblings underneath.
Care to share those rumblings?
Thanks, Ellie ! You and Heather, great minds, thinking alike :)
Contact for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. I plan to call today to voice my support and admiration.
https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/home.nsf/content/VL+-+Judges+-+KBJ
Thanks for that link, Kathy. I'll call Judge Brown's office, too, in sppirt, and then Booker's, to say thank you.
Good Morning Ellie! Thanks for making me smile today, by highlighting the use of a couple of lower case letters and an important capital letter😊 Not much to smile about these days.....
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a bright light and she's doing a remarkable job 🌟
Morning, Lynell! I capitalized your name but from now on, i will use lower case on those I am not fond of…Repubs! Nice catch, Ellie and bravo for HRC!
Love your phrase "lower case disdain!"
...yet she uses it correctly. :)
I’m very glad that I’ve always been a student of, and teacher of critical thinking skills. These skills are based on only critical “theory” of thinking I find relevant in pedagogy that guides the common good of educating our children in this country.
I’d tell every student that is watching the confirmation hearings of nominee Judge Ketanji Jackson for the Supreme Court to remember their critical thinking skills….especially the subskills of compare and contrast.
To watch this morning the two senators Lindsey Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse and then compare and contrast them is an excellent task for learning.
Sen Graham…a buffoon. Histrionics, hyperbole, rudeness, poor listening skills, inability to reframe a statement correctly… Difficult to watch without squirming or gritting teeth. Embarrassing for America, in my opinion.
Sen Whitehouse….a dog with a bone. He makes no bones about dark money in politics and that it has shaped the present court. He also makes no bones about suggesting nefarious intent of some of his colleagues.
I would ask my students also what regard they hold for Judge Jackson. The high regard you mention, Ellie, is the most outstanding characteristic of this nominee.
How fortunate your students were to have you as their teacher! Sen.Whitehouse reminds me of another of his colleagues - Katie Porter with her charts & graphs that so clearly painted a picture.
As you reference the threats to our freedoms looming, I reference a response that I find quite provocative in its approach and typical of our younger gens.
https://mobile.twitter.com/cathynottoday/status/1505901335438319617
Apparently no fly zone for oily Russian oligs not established in West Palm Beach, FL. This is reported to have been the day (March 19, 2022) that gov DeSantis happening to visit Mar-a-Lago.
It is quite interesting what details that young global tech rebels of “Technya”, as some refer to them, are following and dispersing to social media. I understand from speaking with some of them locally (some of this kind have been former students and they speak frankly) that they consider it “alt humanitarian warfare”. A most prolific example is the impact that the group Anonymous is making. I find myself with a strange regard for these efforts. I see how there can be examples of two sides of the coin…Light and dark. At the same time, I have a great respect for technology and science threading throughout our history. If not used as an altar, it is an amazing tool of discovery and communication. Many of the clear-eyed younger gens are using the tool backed by what I consider compassionate and humanitarian values. They will not be deterred.
The pen is mighty. I salute Her.
United, Ellie. 🙋🏻🙋🏼🙋🏽🙋🏾🙋🏿
I missed that! LOL! Thanks for the smile!
Thanks for that observation, Ellie.
As it should be, Ellie!! Right?
The dignified poise of Judge Brown Jackson is inspiring. It stands in sharp contrast to the shallow demagoguery of her detractors.
Jonathan, I'm not sure her detractors know what demagoguery is. Too many syllables...
And no pictures.
☺️
I don’t know how she can keep her poise as she is interrogated by several Republicans. The questioning and commentary by Kennedy from Louisiana was particularly offensive. I couldn’t believe how many times he said how impressed he was as by how “articulate” she was. He would never comment on how articulate a white person is!
Too bad the republican scary clowns are not thoughtful and well spoken. Their stupid, inane remarks,meant for Faux News, say so much more about how pathetic they are than they say about Judge Jackson.
The most offensive thing about Senator Kennedy's cornpone attitude and his white patriarchal patronization is that he, of all the collective dimbulbs in the Senate, ought to know better.
Kennedy is, after all, a former Rhodes Scholar; his deep South affectations are all for the base--total put-on--and it is disgusting in the extreme, I must say.
Kennedy, doesn’t he remind you of a cow chewing its curd? When a white person uses the word “articulate” in their description of a black or brown person, they are simply astonished that someone other than them can speak with any clarity. What a crock!
I believe he is under the impression that HE is articulate - NOT!
If Kennedy wasn't play-acting with his base in mind, he would be fairly articulate--he is a former Rhodes Scholar and the cornpone act is exactly that--an act.
Isn’t it beyond absurd how voters choose the most superficial, shallow people on the planet to make important decisions that affect everyone, well mostly everyone?!
I'm aware of his education - but I dont think I have ever heard him actually being "articulate".
That was pointed out by Nebraska Republican(!) Senator Sasse. Frat boys teasing each other.
Out of all those R scammers - Sen Sasse & even Sen Lee stood out. Not of course that they would ever come down on the side of Judge Jackson, but at least they seemed to actually think & ask questions - not accusations.
What an a$$hole
Did not see Sen. Kennedy nor Hawley's interrogations - didnt miss them. Caught a video of Sen.Cottons. The contrast between Dems & repubs couldnt have been sharper. Kennedy's whining about the Chairman's so-called editorializing was laughable - and Sen. Durban made that clear. Each of the Dems "editorializing" made very clear the "other sides" deliberate scams.
Sort of the picture "if they go low, we go high"!! Which I grant doesnt always work, but it sure does in her case - she certainly comes out on the high side of these jerks.(polite title)
She comes off as wise. The rethuglicans come off as the performative fools that they are.
To us thats the case - really sad that there are those who will believe the performances.
As I noted in yesterday's thread before closing down, I had just had the curious experience of seeing criminals questioning a judge.
Our world turned upside down.
No one and no place on Earth will be safe for as long as this state of affairs continues. The future of free people everywhere will be under threat for as long as these men stay free to strut and subvert.
If they have their way, America's system of justice will go the way of Putin's courts, tightly following the dictates of the Executive -- THEIR Executive, shoehorned in against the wishes of the people -- through perjured rubber-stamp judges.
Yes, criminals questioning a judge and my reaction too when president Zelensky spoke (remotely) to Congress and those hypocritical republicans stood and clapped. Through their cult and undying support for trump, IMO they have blood on their hands regarding Ukraine.
I believe tfg only pulled the scab off what was already underneath.
I don't disagree; but I'm not sure I think it was the election of tfg. The "audacity" of the American people electing a Black man is what tore the scab off the poorly healed wound of enslavement and instead of a healing wound, opened up an infected and pus-ridden injury crawling to the light of day (or riding down a golden escalator).
Yes, I agree. I also think that is at least in part why so many ppl were hostile toward Hillary. First a Black man and THEN a woman??
Specific image.
Ukraine is just the beginning
Succinctly put.
Peter. Also rubber stamped governors. I question if my eyes are seeing correctly when I read such an article referenced below appearing in my newspaper this morning. I’m surprised the dang paper did not erupt in flame.
https://sarasotaheraldtribune-fl.newsmemory.com/?publink=233a0d050_13483c7
WATCH: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse questions Jackson in Supreme Court confirmation hearings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHIc1iOcZGU
Thank you, Kathleen. That was most enlightening.
And, when it comes to Dark Money, and to corporate interests working to sideline recourse to civil juries, I found it painfully enlightening.
I'm reminded of that old joke about the New York police being "the best that money can buy".
And if I were one of the Justices who was a beneficiary (?) of such activity -- especially if I took my oath of office seriously -- I'd be squirming in discomfort at this kind of publicity... that I might be regarded by anyone as "the best judge that money can buy".
I'd be squirming, yet firmly resolved to let my judgment be guided by my conscience and understanding alone, never by the money spent on raising me to the Bench.
A judge must be free and beholden to no outside influence.
In Bruges, Belgium, there are horrific paintings by Gerard David: The Judgment of Cambyses. I am sure many judges will be familiar with these. So they should be.
Whitehouse is not afraid of the truth - he gets my vote, whatever he does - not in it for glory or gain!!
👍🏼
As far as I'm concerned, the Republican Party is a white supremacist political association.
Moreover, the GOP has no interest in governing or helping this country.
The GOP mantra is power for power's sake, which is why instead of concentrating on viable policy solutions, these feckless neoconfederates prefer hot-button, nonsensical issues like CRT, book-banning, and the like.
If this pack of jackels regains electoral power in 2022 and 2024, the country is doomed.
DOOMED, I fear. Because the cult rules in too many hearts and minds
But mainly because of misrepresentation in Congress & the Electoral College. Throw in propaganda media like Fox & Sinclair +++ & the unregulated dark money manipulation allowed in the U.S. & the extreme fundamentalism that many churches have sunk to & we have a country that is stymied by an extremist minority controlling the majority.
Yes, there are some denominations that would quite happily like to see contraception made unavailable, interracial and gay marriage illegal, etc. It would suit their narrow brand of white, male, “Christian” supremacy, forcing their (God-ordained) beliefs on others.
I believe dystopian is the word that would describe what you are saying.
Correct me if I'm wrong in any way here, but I found the religion line of comments by L. Graham particularly lame. The Catholic religion DOES have rules that conflict with our laws. That's the reason Barrett was questioned the way she was, why religion came up. If she's a Catholic, she is probably against abortion. It's relevant. I can't think of an instance where being protestant would be relevant. You are not REQUIRED to believe anything.
You are correct that there are certain conflicts. However a savvy questioner finds other ways to ask questions. A person could have a tightly held moral belief, apart from a religious belief, that could also be an obstacle.
❤️
European’s perspective of the Ugly American is becoming more widely accepted by Americans at large. Recognizing that how the rest of the world sees us, is not off base; comes as an awakening
We are all judged by the behaviors of the GOP, until such time as the GOP dissolves
You nailed it, Deborah
Well said!
Yes, and when that happens, 74 million white supremacists will be delighted. The 74 million are the problem. Republican politicians get their votes by espousing beliefs held in common with the 74 million.
The hearings today for the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson, that should be a celebration, were heartbreaking. I cannot believe the lack of respect and civility by the repubs during their grilling of a most qualified candidate. She was dignified, patient, articulate and prepared. Blatant racism and harassment, hours of asking the same questions, by what appeared to be a practiced and orchestrated plan by a party afraid of change and losing their control. CRT and leniency in sentencing were big topics. Hours of repub attack. And more tomorrow. Gratitude to Dem senators who questioned with respect and genuine interest. What a contrast. I’m not sure I want to spend another day in front of the screen, except to show my support. What strength Judge Brown Jackson must have to not just walk out. But she’s a professional, highly experienced and educated and no doubt, been here before. America 2022 on display.
sen Tom Cotton was the worst. The unmasked look of hate on his face was appalling. All I can say is that Judge Jackson did not wither a bit under his gaze. She even allowed a few pauses and returned a gaze with compassion.
She gets us.
United!
“ The unmasked look of hate on his face was appalling. “
Didn’t have a chance to watch yesterday, too much going on at home, but I am convinced you are correct. The racists in Congress looking at her are constantly going through severe mental contortions in their head: “How do I criticize and attack her, in a society which will butcher me if I say something too obviously racist.”
There's a 2 minute video embedded here that captures Cotton's contempt. I watched it for the Booker exchange.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/22/booker-brings-out-emotion-during-jackson-hearing-00019507
That article concludes with Sen. Durbin's heartfelt and touching response to Sen. Booker:
After Booker wrapped up his time, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) took a moment to talk about Booker and his ability to bring out the emotional side in people.
“There are a lot of politicians on this committee, 22 of them,” Durbin said. “There’s only one Cory Booker. And when he does his cross-examination on the human side, I always wait and see, can the witness get through this without a little emotion? There was a little there, as there should’ve been, as he talked about your family and your parents and your children.”
“Cory, you’re one of a kind,” Durbin added. “We love you.”
I agree Christine. It sounded to me like either he was pushing for police state, or trying to get Judge Jackson to make one wrong step so he could accuse her of wanting it.
I have remained disgusted by Cotton, ever since he led the gang of 46 (46 R Senators) in signing that letter to the government of Iraq in 2015, as so much spittle on President Obama's efforts at negotiation.
Cotton is no patriot nor is he what Claremont Institute's Glen Ellmers' essay calls "authentic Americans' (In Ellmers opinion, only a minority of citizens--those from the 'heartland' (i.e. Bible Belt) are what he chillingly calls "authentic Americans") regardless of the state Cotton supposedly represents.
"America 2022 on display." Irenie, well said.
I was driving while listening to Ted Cruz (probably not the safest combination!) go on and on down a line of "questioning" that was dubious at best and overall appalling. My visual of him is always the devil incarnate. Judge Brown Jackson should have been confirmed on the spot!
Cruz is probably the most hated member of the Senate, within its ranks. What a greasy little weasel.
I always feel like I need a shower after seeing/hearing him - slime all the way!!
Hey...don't insult weasels. Even they are disgusted by Cruz.
❤️
At this point, we all should know exactly what’s coming whenever anyone other than a white man is being considered for a position of authority. Attacks. Racism, sexism, and if there’s an opening for it, gender identity opposition. The R (acism) Party is so completely predictable. I knew with complete conviction what type of behavior would show up for these hearings. You have an African-American woman, and on top of that, she’s married to a white man. What comes next out of these mongrels is to be expected.
You have an African American woman, extremely smart and well-spoken, married to a white man …
Precisely. That’s all you need to know, in order to be able to predict (in general terms) what happens next.
I, for one, am celebrating. *Thank you* Joseph R. Biden Jr. for the gift of Ketanji Onyika Brown's nomination. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉❤️🎉🌺🎉🏆🪑
(that’s a SC chair)
The thing about black people is that it's not their first rodeo. While white people don't see this blatant racism very often (unless you're a republican lawmaker or a racist), they are used to it in their daily lives, so sad and wrong but true. I have many times been shocked at how a black person would roll their eyes and shake their heads while faced with racist behavior while I, rarely having seen it, would be about to implode. Still, I wish I had her cell number so I could text "You go girl!" to her! I got so depressed by Graham, Hawley, Cruz, et al. but then had to force myself to think of her strength and intelligence, as well as the respect of the Dem senators, in order to feel more positive about the whole thing.
Kim, Here’s contact info:
https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/home.nsf/content/VL+-+Judges+-+KBJ
Wow, thanks Kathy!
Be careful what you ask for . . . 😄
Sometimes, like today, I feel like crawling in a hole and hibernating. If only there were a safe hole to climb into. Ukraine is a 12-hour car trip away.
I'm looking out at a sunny, peaceful city, all the way to the Taunus Mountains, which is where the mighty Roman army, on their way to conquer the rest of the land to the North Sea, was stopped by the german Kelts - fierce tribes that held the line. I think of the colonial patriots.
I think - every minute - of the heroic Ukrainians.
Rosalind, I am with you! I think of the plight of the brave Ukrainian people every day, every minute. And of how it is impossible to understand how some members of the Republican party cannot support the Ukrainian cause!
Yes, I do too.
Roland, good to see you here.
Hi Pam. Thanks. 😘
I, too.
And this just popped into my DAR mailbox: How did the American Revolution influence Ukraine?
https://www.amrevmuseum.org/ukraine-and-the-american-revolution?utm_source=ukraine&utm_medium=facebook-post&utm_campaign=ukraine-facebook-post&fbclid=IwAR1U7Ob2WUn0khi65ai7xNXMGyMkciA-Wm24q99IiYakbY_Y3lA_oD4G7pk
Our family used to go hiking and sledding in the Taunus. “🎶 Das Wandern ist des Mueller’s Lust, . . . “
Yes - the Taunus mountains! Beautiful...
Taunus Near Koenigstein?
Königstein is about a half hour drive from us. We're between the mountain range and the Rhein River.
I use to work for company there. Loved the castle and restaurants. Fishbach too
I sent an email to Senator Braun in support of the nomination of Judge Brown Jackson. In response he wrote of his concerns “ nominees for judicial branch posts who have a long history of liberal activism and hold views well outside of the mainstream. The role of a Supreme Court justice should be to interpret and apply our Constitution, not to reshape our country by legislating from the bench.” Per usual, I found his “concerns” deceitful and hypocritical.
Their buzz word now is ´radical liberalism´.
That’s how a reactionary extremist, a hardcore racist and sexist, sees you and me.
It's to interesting that you wrote this. I was thinking that these people represent racists, sexists, homophobes, terrorists, and religious fanatics. The question is, do they represent more voters than the rest of us and will America become a dystopian society.
I believe the 2020 Election answered that question. Even more so, the January 5, 2021, special election for the 2 Georgia Senate seats. (also the 2018 midterms, the California Blue Wave election, is a bellwether for where the whole country is headed imnsho, im not-so-humble o).
trump is the backlash to the Obamas in the White House, Biden is the reaction to trump, and now the question is, what comes next. Do we keep going back-and-forth, between the racists and the real people (the “radical liberals”), or do we finally land permanently in the diverse, democratic society, like in California?
I'm so proud to be a Californian, however, like our country, it is in danger from the rancid right.
Me too, but CA could secede along with other open-minded, fair states. Remember the guy from L A who brought that up years ago? It could be a reality someday.
I am sticking with CA!
❤️
Kavanaugh and ACB don't make me feel like they've chosen the most impartial justices in the whole world.
Clarence Thomas, of all people, has been bitching in public about the Supreme Court swinging too far one way (democratic/liberal). I can’t believe that loser ever made it onto the court, he is such a pathetic excuse for a human being
We have George Sr to thank for that.
Thus the hypocrisy.
How about Alito and Gorsuch?
He knows how to repeat the bull Schitt and pile it higher. They are experts in demagoguery. When will they be called out for the traitors the have become. Not as long as Rupert is our Goebbels…
How on earth does Jerry Hall live with herself??
Money acts as a salve - for those who have sold their souls
They should know all about people who hold views outside of the mainstream. It’s so bad they’ve changed their definition of the word
To them, “mainstream” is whatever they believe, not necessarily the majority of the country.
write the nitwit back with point by point rebuttals
Though I feel it would be an exercise in futility, I may do just that. It would ensure he never responds to me again, as is the case with my Representatives.
You expected something different?
Hoped. Not expected. I think confirming a SCOTUS member is serious. I just don't get the un-serious members of the GOP Judiciary Committee. Putting party before country strikes me as being an instant disqualifier for the position. If only McConnell and FOX could see it that way too.
These awful r people are only serious about their hold on power and money; the country and its challenges be damned.
So instead of listening with empathy to the concerns of a constituent, he sends back a letter full of bombast and bloviation about issues that have been drummed up to rouse the base. What an arse.
I wouldn't have been able to restrain myself from sending him a letter emblazoned with the words of the soldiers guarding Ukraine's Snake Island.
I have found that when presented with opposing view politely and succinctly, they just stop responding. I keep my views in their in boxes, but they no longer respond to me.
Carla, you’re a better person than me if you can contact that greaseball’s office. Here’s to you, and to everyone else here who makes the calls and writes the emails to the racists 🥂
I really wish I had been wrong decades ago. In the 90’s I watched Newt and newly hatched Fox use Lee Atwater’s evil screeds to malign all Democrats. In 2000, I watched W/Dickie steal the election with aid from James Baker and Roger Stone. Then rule like they had a mandate; no compromise there, although Teddy K. tried. Well, on to 2008 when, W/Dickie had trashed our international standing and our economy. Then watched McCain choose Palin and trash Obama as socialist and blame him for all their failures with great success. (This was the same McCain who had been in primary against Bush in 2000. I watched as the Bush crowd told the most egregious lies about McCain. A reporter asked how they could conduct such an obvious smear campaign and one of the perps said, “We go to church on Sunday and get forgiven.”). I skip to 2012 when Obama (still alive by some miracle) won, and the conventional wisdom was that republicans needed to get real and appeal to a more diverse electorate. Well, watched them double down on the propaganda that Fox had been pushing since it’s day one. (I know because my best friend’s family had it on literally 24/7 from it’s inception and it blasted vitriol no matter the hour and I had a front row seat.). We all know what happened next. The Republican party has been trying to destroy our democracy for half a century. Jennifer Rubin called it right. The Grand Ole Party died long ago. The zombie apocalypse lives…
Jeri, what a timeline. And what comes next is anybody's guess. It seems we’re too afraid to guess. And act on stopping the moving train. Howard Zinn wrote, “You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train.” He’s now departed, but he would be telling us to stand up and speak out. The train is out of control.
Another of my favorites from Howard Zinn... "Democracy isn't a spectator sport."
👍🏼
Thanks, Jeri, for these reminders. newt is still around and advising the GQP, the bastard.
GOP claims about a doctrine of State's Rights is bogus nomenclature, there is no doctrine, it is simply the 'My way or no way' autocratic doctrine with an Orwellian justification. Where was the State's Rights doctrine when cities and states wanted stricter Covid mandates like masking or vaccinations, or environmental rules like California's gas mileage rules or a shift to EVs, or deciding what to teach in schools and the Trumpists GOP clowns did everything it could to strangle states' decisions like withholding Congressionally appropriated money? The alarming thing is that many of these clowns (Cruz, Hawley and Braun) are lawyers, they know better! Disgraceful!
Those 3 took the Hypocritical Oath when they bought their way into the bar. You know, the one that declares justice will be the first victim in court. They had a couple shots at the bar and then staggered out to seek their fortunes. That’s where they met some Russian dudes.
😅
Braun has a MBA from Harvard. Hopefully his statement will be remembered when he is up for re-election. I have found contacting my senators (Braun &Young) very depressing.
The people in Indiana will remember how many much they liked his bigotry.
Some Hoosiers will and some won’t.
They know better, way worse than the cult sheep
It's hard to imagine how much more toxic the Republican part has become since the 2012 opinion piece Heather referenced titled, "Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem." by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein. The damage done by Gingrich and Norquist alone is monumental and will likely follow us well into the future.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lets-just-say-it-the-republicans-are-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_story.html
A fatal blow perhaps
Daria, thanks for the link. I read their "It's Even Worse Than It Looks" from back at the same time--still worth a look--but the short-form distillation in the op-ed hits all the high notes.
Good morning, daria, hope all is well with you. Just noticing, I don't see a single post from TC today. I know you read his substack as well (its been suggested to me often, I haven't gotten around to it as I have my friend who introduced me to this forum sends tons of reading material to me daily, along with my own forays down the internet rabbit hole) I am wondering if you stuck a nerve, which might not be a bad thing--we can all use constructive criticism upon occasion---or if things are honestly dire with him. I hope not.
Hi Miselle, All is well here, I hope the same for you. I haven't seen remarks from TC today, but I doubt I struck a chord with him. Maybe he's simply simmered down a bit. I don't regularly read his substack but I don't think he's posted yet today. Like you, I hope things are not dire on the home front.
This says it all, ¨A full decade ago, in April 2012, respected scholars Thomas Mann, of the Brookings Institution, and Norm Ornstein, of the American Enterprise Institute, crunched the numbers and concluded: “The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. When one party moves this far from the mainstream,” they wrote, “it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.”
And yet, in the last decade, the party has moved even further to the right. Now it is not only calling for an end to the civil rights protections that undergird modern America, but also lining up behind a leader who tried to overthrow our democracy. A column by Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post yesterday was titled: “Fringe Republicans are not the problem. It’s the party’s mainstream.”
They are the judges and grudge holders of Salem during the witch trials.
Yes, yes, yes! It’s a horror show. “impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.” What’s next is scary to think about.
Especially since the MSM still pretends that the republicans are a partner in governing
Well, for the first 3 1/2 years of the Trump administration, they kept politely tiptoeing around. But finally now everyone is calling out lies and using the word “lies.” We have to give them a little bit of credit, before we accuse them again of being terrible, which they still are.
It has been a long time coming…I feared the worst twenty years ago when the white steepled formerly Congregational church in my then hometown of 600 in Vermont got a new pastor who declared no women could speak in Services and none could fail to use their husband‘s names…or Ms.. . In Vermont! „Christian“ Radio droned on crowding the airwaves around NPR, The worst of the Supreme Court Justices turn out to have been to law school at Harvard or Yale.
I’m just so tired of watching and listening to these yahoos acting like their some kind of Keystone Kops vampire hunters running around making sure they have a wooden stake in their hands at all times to pound in the hearts of liberal “sinners.” They just keep climbing out of their clown car dragging more oppressive ideas along with them. They don’t appear to read for meaning. I’ve yet to hear any of them give an accurate explanation of what CRT actually is. It has the word race in it. That’s about as far as any of them get. Durban was right—Trial by Ordeal, Judge Brown Jackson was a model of composed and cogent thoughts, and gave on the mark responses to some ridiculous questions.
I don’t believe judging from the books I’ve read on the subject, we often have towers of intellect sitting in Congress, but I think we may had had groups of people who were there to govern. These guys! They need to go back and take a remedial civics class. They have no business sitting in my bedroom, legislating my choices in sleeping partners. No business sitting in my womb. No business telling me who I can love. My problem is I can’t understand why they care about these things. I’d like my roads fixed, my pipes clean, a working supply chain, access to good healthcare, to go to an event and feel like I’ll get home at night. And peace in our time. These things seem to me to more about making things great, than rabble rousing about some theory they can’t give a definition for. The Party of No, the Right’s just Wrong. I hope they find that the loud folks hollering for “the good old days” are a very small part of their support. And there will be fewer of them come January.
You must think that CRT still refers to a legal theory about structural racism. For Republicans, it now refers to any thinking critical of racism or of white supremacy.
Yeah... the words "critical" and "race" seem to mean something entirely different to them. Shows the level of their ability to think (dare I say) critically about anything.
It was a deliberate campaign by a Republican operative. I don't have any links handy, but it's been in the press.
Salud, MA. What a fabulous post. I agree 1000%. ☮️🇺🇸💫
Yes MA. This. Well said.
Well here we are with senator Braun leading us forward, into the past. Following his lead we will march straight into 1858, when all was ‘right’ with the world, if you were a white, propertied male. And if you weren’t, we’ll that’s just your bad luck for being born that way. And senator Blackburn should be careful, lest she gets what she’s hoping for. Back in the good old days of the antebellum South, women had no rights, either — they couldn’t vote, let alone become US senators in the America she and Braun and the GOP wish to return to. Back then women didn’t have to worry the pretty little old heads with men’s stuff like politics or finance or business. I, for one, find the past the GOP longs for a dystopian nightmare, one we must work hard to prevent becoming reality.
sen Braun “leading us forward into the past”…good one, Fran.
I’ll quote you in my political spiel.
"forward, into the past" is not my original. I remember it from Firesign Theater -- it was a song on one of their early albums and the title of their 1976 compilation album. It is a great line, isn't it.
I love how music comes back around.
Heather, I watched a good deal of the hearing. I think you captured a great deal of the roller coaster ride -- from the inspired and inspiring testimony of Justice Brown Jackson, to the hateful and divisive inquisitions launched by Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham. With civil liberties under escalating attack from the Republican Party -- mainstream and fringe -- this country is in increasing danger of fracturing.
And the party “romanticizing” this fracture will lead us to the horrors happening in Ukraine today. https://youtu.be/aWCgFVmkgOs
Dr. Richardson.
Good job. Your outrage here is clear, well written and appropriate. Thank you.
Calling out those, apparently many, who would be comfortable currying favor with Hitler is the right approach and ripping on them in communication is the way to fight.
Also, I personally recommend that you choose a place outside the country (Canada, Greece, Uruguay are good options) and make sure you can go there on short notice.
No, I am not joking and yes, my wife and I have put that in place for us and our kids.
If America returns to the days when it is legal to hold down a war veteran in a jail and stab his eyes out with a night stick, we are gone.
All those poor boys from the north and the south who fought in the civil war and died? For what? Here we are again.
HCR has commented that she has an option out of the U.S., but she will stay here to fight.
Well said, Mike.