Maus Traps

The Supremes:  Two weeks ago during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Marsha Blackburn one of Tennessee’s Republican Senators said she would oppose the nomination of Andre Mathis to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.  She cited Mathis’ extensive “rap sheet” as one of the chief reasons for her opposition.  That rap sheet involved three speeding tickets, at least one of which was for driving 45 mph in a 40 mile zone, in other words for driving while Black. Blackburn failed to mention that last year her car was pulled over by police but that she avoided any consequences by flashing her congressional pin and indicating that she was a US Senator.  Senator Cory Booker responded to Blackburn’s rap sheet accusations by pointing out that by her standards he was a seasoned criminal as he had been stopped countless times for similar “violations” while growing up in a largely white New Jersey suburb.  I bring this up because with Justice Stephen Breyer’s decision to step down from the Court, over the next month or so we are going to be told that President Biden’s as yet unannounced nominee to serve as his replacement is a radical with politics somewhat akin to those of Che Guevara and Osama Bin Laden. We’ll probably find out that she pushed someone on the playground when she was in grade school, that she is an unapologetic vegan and that she doesn’t like apple pie.  As to who the nominee will be, Biden has already said that he intends to fulfill the promise he made on the campaign trail to nominate a Black woman. Republicans who have apparently forgotten that their hero Ronald Reagan promised to nominate a woman and then did by nominating Sandra Day O’Connor, who went on to became the first woman on the Court, are outraged that Biden had the audacity to even make such a promise.  Those are the same Republicans who had no problem with the Former Guy promising to outsource his judicial picks to the right wing Federalist Society, the group whose approved list includes only those who would promise to overturn Roe v Wade.  A strategy that sadly appears to be working for them.  Of course Mitch McConnell who stood in the way of centrist Merrick Garland being seated on the Court when he was nominated by President Obama has already made it clear that Biden should only nominate a centrist rather than any of those Black radicals he’s considering because he’s concerned that the “divided” nation can’t bear the seating of a liberal judge particularly a Black female one. That’s the same Mitch who is largely responsible for giving us the as far from centrist as you can get anti-mask Gorsuch, “I like beer and worse” Kavanaugh and Handmaiden Coney Barrett. 

The Candidates:  Though the pool of qualified and competent Black female jurists is quite deep, Biden’s nominee is likely to be either the recently confirmed Harvard educated DC Circuit Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Harvard and Yale educated Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court Leondra Kruger or South Carolina public university educated US District Court Judge Michelle Childs who was currently nominated to serve on DC Circuit Court.  Until recently and maybe still Brown Jackson was the frontrunner.  She clerked for the retiring Breyer, received the support of all of the Democratic Senators as well as Republicans Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Lindsey Graham during her DC Court confirmation process, is recognized for her experience and as a result of her recent confirmation has already been vetted once.  While Brown Jackson may still be the favorite South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn whose endorsement propelled Biden to office and who pushed Biden to commit to nominate a Black women in the first place is advocating for home state favorite Michelle Childs in part because he believes her home state credentials will get the votes of his state’s two Republican Senators Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham.  And don’t count out Leondra Kruger, in addition to her stellar education and impressive experience, she clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens,  her father was the son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, something that might help when the right tries to tie one of the other candidates to radical Islam just for the heck of it.  We will know Biden’s pick soon enough, as both he and Senate Leader Schumer want to push the nomination through at Amy Coney Barrett speed despite Republican protests and the statement from pearl twirler Senator Susan Collins that the Senate should take its time.

WTF:  Stupidity, ignorance and greed continue to reign across the country.  There’s no other way to explain the decision by Tennessee’s McMinn County Board of Education to remove “Maus,” Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the experiences of Holocaust survivors from the district’s curriculum over concerns about "rough, objectionable language" and a drawing of a nude woman. Of course, their decision has already had the expected Streisand effect, demand for Maus has skyrocketed so much so that it is now sold out on Amazon.  I’ve got a copies of both volumes if anyone wants to borrow mine. By the way the Streisand effect is in fact named after singer Barbra whose efforts to prevent aerial pictures of her property from being used by California to show evidence of Malibu beach erosion resulted in them getting the attention she was trying to avoid.  As to stupidity and wanton disregard for others, the infectious Sarah Palin continues to disregard COVID quarantine guidelines.  She’s been back to the Upper East Side’s Elios and has also been seen dining at another local Italian restaurant because apparently disease mitigation recommendations only apply to the rest of us.  Then there’s the New York Young Republican Club.  This week they “proudly endorsed” autocratic anti-Democracy leader/Tucker Carlson favorite Viktor Orbán for Prime Minister of Hungary. When I saw this on Twitter, I assumed it was a joke however, it’s not as it appears on their website.  Lastly, last night Spotify’s website was inundated by subscribers trying to cancel their membership.  Apparently, the decision to support anti-vaxer Joe Rogan over classic rock icon Neil Young isn’t going as planned. 

Enjoy the weekend, stay warm and safe.