I’m not talking about Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson giving up. She appears to be as focused as they come and has spent her time in the hot seat maintaining an admirable and steely calm.
I’m talking about the rest of us who have spent the last few days screaming at our screens while Graham/Cruz/Hawley/Tillis et al grilled, grandstanded, and degraded themselves, the U.S. Senate, and the process of vetting Supreme Court justices. It will take a long time to remove the stain they left.
But swear to God, there is no one who could have said better what Sen. Cory Booker said on Wednesday after yet another bruising day that left me, at least, questioning precisely how we got to this point. Maybe you have something you want to get off your chest, too. Treat this thread however you want. Let off steam. Call names. Praise the judge. Have at it. The lines are open.
And if you want to read the poem by Joplin’s own Langston Hughes, here it is.
I was driving, catching portions of the hearing on NPR. Screaming at Cruz' malignant caricature of a representative of the people, I'm sure I looked like a road-rager. The "man" is toxicity personified. And petulant, whining Graham?? There's no "there" there, so please just shut up. Hawley was nothing short of creepy. As these guys continued to pile on, I noticed that, as their descriptions of the acts depicted by images stored or shared by the child pornographers became more lurid and graphic, the above senators (I didn't hear Tillis) seemed increasingly to relish reciting descriptions of horror and violation.
Cory Booker was a balm. Sheldon Whitehouse also. Brown Jackson will make a wonderful Justice. Thank you for the poem and for encouraging venting.
Racism in America is something that I have been aware of since the 60s and it is so deeply imbedded in some people that they are not even aware of that fact
It’s not something that I learned from watching tv or reading about but rather from the goofballs around me including my own family
For years whenever my father would talk about Mohammad Ali or Kareem Abdul Jabbar he would call them Cassius Clay and Lew Alcindor
I would ask him why he called them that because that wasn’t their names
He would say that’s their real names and I always call people by their real names
This is something he has been doing since the 60s and he still does it to this day
It was when I became a teenager that I found out something that I say to him when he does that and he falls for it every time
He is like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football
After he calls them Cassius Clay or Lew Alcindor I ask him if he is going to watch a Marion Morrison movie
He always asks who is she and I always tell him that she was the actress who changed her name to John Wayne
He always says that is different
I also ask him what he calls Ahmad Rashad and he says Ahmad Rashad , why?
And I have to tell him that he had his name legally changed
He then asks me what his real name is and I tell him to look it up knowing full well that he won’t
But he is absolutely positive that he isn’t racist or bigoted
Senator Booker's supply of an oasis of hope was golden. Senator Whitehouse's labeling of increasing corporate power under the aegis of the Supreme Court was valuable.* Both acknowledged our current purgatory and pointed toward ways out.
But why do we, as USians, countenance the power of bigotry and extractive myopic capitalism, and their parade in the trampling of a superb Supreme Court candidate and of labor?
Why don't we explicitly expect that dealers of trauma do therapy to understand and perhaps alter their drives to harm? Why don't we restrain their inflictions of trauma on anyone they can claim power over?
* I am sorry that I missed Senator Ossoff: I gather that he was also wonderful.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be an excellent addition to the Supreme Court. The behavior of Cruz, Graham, Hawley etc was sickening. It was clearly meant to create angry clips for their uneducated base who doesn't care about context as long as there is a fight against the slightest appearance of someone/something supported by democrats. I'm so sad we are where we are.
I have loved Cory Booker for years and now just love him more. What he said to the judge was perfect - just what needed to be said. It is sad, also, what he said will likely not be heard by conservatives who didn't watch it and get their news from right wing sources.
It's like the country's and the world's wellness hinges on messages shared and received. Bad actors keep spreading misinformation to suit their selfish interests. That bothers me a lot. Who ever thought of the word being the most dangerous and most powerful weapon? ....Maybe journalists have known all along.
I was driving, catching portions of the hearing on NPR. Screaming at Cruz' malignant caricature of a representative of the people, I'm sure I looked like a road-rager. The "man" is toxicity personified. And petulant, whining Graham?? There's no "there" there, so please just shut up. Hawley was nothing short of creepy. As these guys continued to pile on, I noticed that, as their descriptions of the acts depicted by images stored or shared by the child pornographers became more lurid and graphic, the above senators (I didn't hear Tillis) seemed increasingly to relish reciting descriptions of horror and violation.
Cory Booker was a balm. Sheldon Whitehouse also. Brown Jackson will make a wonderful Justice. Thank you for the poem and for encouraging venting.
Venting is good, and that poem is incredible. And to hell with the rest.
Racism in America is something that I have been aware of since the 60s and it is so deeply imbedded in some people that they are not even aware of that fact
It’s not something that I learned from watching tv or reading about but rather from the goofballs around me including my own family
For years whenever my father would talk about Mohammad Ali or Kareem Abdul Jabbar he would call them Cassius Clay and Lew Alcindor
I would ask him why he called them that because that wasn’t their names
He would say that’s their real names and I always call people by their real names
This is something he has been doing since the 60s and he still does it to this day
It was when I became a teenager that I found out something that I say to him when he does that and he falls for it every time
He is like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football
After he calls them Cassius Clay or Lew Alcindor I ask him if he is going to watch a Marion Morrison movie
He always asks who is she and I always tell him that she was the actress who changed her name to John Wayne
He always says that is different
I also ask him what he calls Ahmad Rashad and he says Ahmad Rashad , why?
And I have to tell him that he had his name legally changed
He then asks me what his real name is and I tell him to look it up knowing full well that he won’t
But he is absolutely positive that he isn’t racist or bigoted
He just believes what he believes
Oh, well done.
Senator Booker's supply of an oasis of hope was golden. Senator Whitehouse's labeling of increasing corporate power under the aegis of the Supreme Court was valuable.* Both acknowledged our current purgatory and pointed toward ways out.
But why do we, as USians, countenance the power of bigotry and extractive myopic capitalism, and their parade in the trampling of a superb Supreme Court candidate and of labor?
Why don't we explicitly expect that dealers of trauma do therapy to understand and perhaps alter their drives to harm? Why don't we restrain their inflictions of trauma on anyone they can claim power over?
* I am sorry that I missed Senator Ossoff: I gather that he was also wonderful.
He was. And I could not sit still for all that racist nonsense. It was unbearable.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will be an excellent addition to the Supreme Court. The behavior of Cruz, Graham, Hawley etc was sickening. It was clearly meant to create angry clips for their uneducated base who doesn't care about context as long as there is a fight against the slightest appearance of someone/something supported by democrats. I'm so sad we are where we are.
I have loved Cory Booker for years and now just love him more. What he said to the judge was perfect - just what needed to be said. It is sad, also, what he said will likely not be heard by conservatives who didn't watch it and get their news from right wing sources.
It's like the country's and the world's wellness hinges on messages shared and received. Bad actors keep spreading misinformation to suit their selfish interests. That bothers me a lot. Who ever thought of the word being the most dangerous and most powerful weapon? ....Maybe journalists have known all along.
That's the thing to focus on. Judge Jackson will be a wonderful addition to the Supreme Court.
Judge Jackson wasn’t the only one brought to tears. Senator Booker’s powerful words and unbridled joy was just what we needed.
Absolutely.
Cory Booker was phenomenal!!! And this poem is magnificent!! Bob
When he started in with it, I cheered. It was perfect.
All of this. And thank you for educating me on Langston Hughes’ Joplin heritage; offsets my feelings about Hawley a bit…
Josh Hawley is still a deep stain on the Constitution. Bu we get to claim Langston Hughes.