Family Reunion

NTFU and now on TikTok as Danielle Moody underscore. I posted a lot of pictures, but I wanted to save kind of my in depth reflection for all of you, and I particularly you know, for the folks that asked to say, you know, they want to know how how it happened and you know how it felt. Um. I have to say that for folks that have been listening to woke fum you know over the years or have been following me, have known that you know, during the Obama years, I spent a lot of time at the

White House. I did not work for the Obama administration, but by virtue of my role in lgbt Q politics, and in UM movement politics, I will say whether that is specifically on black you know, Black Americans, UM, the diaspora and people of color and social justice or you know, the intersections right of where marginalized people are. I spent a lot of time at the White House, UH during

the Obama years because I believe wholeheartedly in democracy. I believe wholeheartedly in our duty and responsibilities as citizens of this country to do what we can in order to preserve our democracy. It's something that I've never taken lightly. I fell in love with politics when I was in high school. When I was in high school, History and English were always, you know, the two subjects that I excelled at the most and the ones that I loved. But politics I got turned on to in my AP

government in politics class. Because I could say this all

the time. I believe that my teacher was a communist, and I believe that she had a very globalized view on politics, and you know, and on the people's ability if they were informed, if they were educated to really participate, right, that you don't have to be just a deposit to a deposit, right for whatever it is that the powers that be want that in order for government and democracy, I should say, in order for democracy to thrive, and then even in order for capitalism to exist, there has

to be an agreement, right, And there was an agreement made. It was called the Constitution, right, and it was in agreement on how we were going to operate, how we were going to create government for and by the people. And as society evolved, so too, right did our laws

and amendments. But what we didn't know, what we were not privy to, was a crystal ball in realizing what would happen if people stopped really paying attention, if people got complacent, because after the election of their first black president, they believed that all was well, that we were quote unquote post racial, and I you know, as and many people that I know that exist in different ways in the political sphere, we also got complacent, right, Like we

thought that we had done the work and that now we were going to be reaping the benefits of what it was going to be like to continue right, bending this arc towards justice. That we thought, by virtue of the election of Barack Obama that Americans would have opened up their eyes to seeing what society can look like if you put it in the hands of people who are compassionate, who are smart, who are empathetic, who are strategic,

and what that can look like. And you know, so over the course of the Obama years, I spent a lot of time, you know, working with and around the Obama administration. And when Hilary Clinton was defeated, I was on air, right I was doing election night coverage in Canada, and that coverage that night went viral because I was absolutely beside myself. It took everything in me not to cry on national television. And you know, people always ask me why do I get so angry, right, Like, why

do I have so much rage? Because I believe that much in democracy. I believe that much in our body politic and there is nothing more that can send me into a fucking tailspin of anger and rage. Then watching white mediocrity and white rage topple the progress that has been made in this country, the progress that my ancestors, for your ancestors fort for. And I took up the mantle in my own small way to be able to

contribute to the progress of this nation. And when you see it being taken advantage of, when you see the toxicity when you see the racism, when you see the worst in us, having success after success after success, you

become disillusioned. And so that brings me to Friday. On Thursday night, Like all of the fortunate people that were able to attend the White House event commemorating Judge Katangi Brown Jackson, I opened up my inbox and it was just like, hey, you're invited to attend history, right, And for me, you know, and a lot of people who spent years living you know, almost two decades or pretty much two decades living inside the Beltway, you know, a lot of us moved right, like the Obamas were out

and we were like sis, you know, it was the possibility of a Trump presidency, but never really truly deep down, I wanted to believe that America was better, but I was done and I wanted to move on to something else. But when you receive a message from the White House,

you attend. And that's what happened on Thursday evening. And so I would find myself Friday morning on a six am train to Washington, d C. It was going to be my first time going to the White House in you know, what would be five years, and I'm getting emotional now because the last day, my last day celebrating at the White House with my friends and colleagues. You know,

we cried because we didn't know what was coming. And I think that those tiers weren't just like the end of this Golden Error, but it was a fear of what was coming, what could potentially come if we lost. And then to live through that, to see our White House destroyed, the sanctity of it, the beauty of it, the prestige of it, To see the Capitol Building, a place of such pride as a child of immigrants who walked those halls and worked in those halls four years,

for years, to watch it desecrated. This is why it isn't just white privilege, it isn't just white supremacy. It

isn't all of these things. It's the demeaning of what enslaved Africans built and where we were able to have this amazing full circle moment with the Obamas, and so to be back there after four horrific years under Donald Trump, two years of a fucking global health pandemic, and having left the firms that I've worked for the institutions and be an independent voice and not tied to any institution, and to be invited back to witness this history and have front row, have a front row seat to history

was it was the honor of my career to this point. And I hadn't expected to be emotional because for some people that were in attendance, it was there very first time.

And so being with people who it was their very first time attending a White House event, attending a major event, and then but then being on the South Lawn with friends and colleagues who you haven't seen in five years, it felt like, you know, a family reunion, right, like a family picnic um outside as we're all greeting and hugging and just can't believe that we're we're back because

we never expected to be back. Um, having dropped everything, uh that you had ever planned to do on that Friday, Um, and you know, and and head back right and be to be to quote Hamilton, to be in the room where it happened, to be on the lawn where history was being made, and so to listen to Judge Jackson, to listen to the Vice President, to listen to Biden, and you know, and folks know, like I made the joke while I was there that I was surprised that

I was invited back because I don't give this administration a pass. I don't give anybody a pass, frankly, like, because our democracy is too fucking important to hurt people to be concerned about hurting motherfucker's feelings, right, Like, I'm not concerned about people's feelings. I'm concerned about fascism, right,

I'm not concerned about making friends. I'm concerned about authoritarianism and how quickly, how quickly our democratic norms fell and are falling, and faith in institution and agencies that have been built up over two hundred and thirty some odd years is terrifying. So to have this brief moment in the midst of Mayhem, to be able to celebrate this extraordinary human being and listen to her quote, my Angelou,

it sent me over. I was in tears, and so many people around, you know, because if you ever have the privilege of being able to attend an event or events at the White House, like the energy when you're at a White House that you know isn't run by a criminal enterprise, the energy is just so beautiful because we've all spent our lives and our careers, working in this space, trying to make the world better in our small part and place, and then you get to go

and be at in the seats of power. And it's humbling. That's the only word that I can say. That it's humbling um to experience and for me to remember like this long forgotten time which feels like one hundred years ago. And I noticed some people like five years. You know, there are people that have never been to the White House. There are people that and I trust me, I get how how it can land. But that that's my truth.

That's you know, it's it's the space that I have been in and worked in and put in time in for you know, for a really long time. So it was incredibly humbling and beautiful. It was a beautiful day. There was you know, white, huge puffy clouds in the sky and the sun was beaming down and you know, the garden, the White House gardens, you know, look beautiful and UM, it was just so joyous and it was so joyous to see um, to be able to see Reverend Jesse Jesse Jackson who is ailing um from Parkinson's

but was present. And this man has fought his entire life. You know and has gotten to see these moments that they couldn't have even have dreamt of. You know, when they're battling against police batons and hoses, um, and you know in cradling, uh, you know Martin Luther King as he died in their arms, the promise of the future

to see him. And you know Reverend Al Sharpton, who over the years I have gotten to know just by virtue of going on tv UM to see them there and to watch their faces as they are listening to Judge Jackson soon to be Justice Jackson. Once Briar officially resigns in June. It was extraordinary. It was a day for black women, I think, everywhere in every industry to know that we are overqualified most times for the things

that we are doing, and largely overlooked. And on Friday, the spotlight was on the extraordinary grace, brilliance, perseverance, fortitude of this extraordinary black woman. And what I really appreciated as well was Biden being honest about how disgusting and despicable her confirmation hearing was and how it was an insult not only to her to black people, but to the Supreme Court, and that Republicans showed their whole ass right.

They showed exactly who they are, what they stand for, as if anybody had any fucking doubts in their mind. But they're always those motherfuckers that want to consider themselves undecided. I just say that they're desperate for attention. But those that love to believe that they're undecided or independent, you know, need constant reminders of the vitriol, of the racism, of

the hatred that Republicans embody. And because of that and the handling that this beautiful soul showed the world during her confirmation hearing, she went into her commemoration with the highest approval rating of any justice. It took two hundred and thirty three years for a black woman to sit on the Supreme Court, for a black woman in an Asian Pacific islander to be vice President of the United States.

Centuries so to be able to sit and watch and applaud and scream and then drink copious amounts of champagne with friends, to celebrate, to celebrate the day, to celebrate this history, just for a moment, right to really be present in joy and present in this space was a beautiful thing. It was a beautiful thing. If you haven't already, you can check out some of the photos and videos that I took on my Instagram at D two cents and on Twitter, which I tweeted out over the weekend

as well. But it was truly truly day to remember and one that I will cherish and remember for, you know, for the rest of my life. And I am just so incredibly grateful. And it was a reminder too as well that there is still so much goddamn work to be done, because I hope that we don't have to wait another two hundred and thirty years for a second black woman to be on the Supreme Court, or the first Asian woman to be on the Supreme Court, or for the third black man to be on the Supreme Court.

That's only if you count Clarence Thomas. So with that said, folks, I am going to switch gears and get into the news of the day. Over the weekend, multiple stories in the New York Times sent my blood absolutely boiling. But one of the first that I want to get into is actually coming out of Texas, and it is a despicable story that I'm certain many of you have heard,

and if not, then let me enlighten you. Twenty six years Twenty six year old Lizzelle Herrera was in custody last week being held on five hundred thousand dollar bond for performing a self induced abortion. Now we know that this was going to happen. That the whole point of what Texas has done, what Oklahoma has done, what Alabama is doing, what Mississippi has done, is all to force women back into back alley situations where they are being forced to take their health into their own hands, their

lives into their own hands. But thankfully, there are you know, abortion pills. There are abortion you know abortion pills that we've talked about with our friend Danielle Campomore that there are safe ways right. But the way that these laws are working is that they are written in a way that Atlante law in Texas that hospitals and people can report. Hospitals are supposed to report. There's a reason why when people are shot, right, they don't oftentimes go to the

hospital because it triggers the cops to come. Well, that's what happens with criminals, but is not supposed to happen with a woman or a person with a uterus trying to access an abortion. So let me read you this story out of Texas Public Radio Star and here's the thing. Lizzelle Herrera has since been released from custody. An abortion rights organization paid her bond in order to have her released, and since last week. She was released over the weekend

because Star County District Attorney gotcha. Alan Ramirez said Sunday he had filed emotion to dismiss a murder charge against a woman for performing a self induced abortion. Ramirez said that the case stemmed from a report made two police by a local hospital in January. Ramirez said that the Star County Sheriff's Department quote did their duty in investigating the incident brought to their attention by the reporting hospital, but this was not a criminal matter under Texas law. Quote.

In reviewing applicable Texas law, it is clear that miss Harrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegations against her. Texas Public Radio goes on to write, this is a dramatic turnaround from an indictment signed March thirtieth, twenty twenty two, stating that Herrera quote did then and there intentionally and knowingly caused the death of an individual by a self induced abortion. The specifics and the strength of the case, as they write, were murky from the start. Quote.

The Texas Murder Statute does apply to the killing of an unborn fetus, Ramirez said, but it specifically exempts cases where the person who terminated the fetus is the pregnant woman. Folks, We're in hell, okay, And the reality is this is just one of many cases that we are going to hear about that we are going to lose sleepover, that we are going to raise our blood pressure over that we are going to cause that's going to cause so much dysfucking ease in our lives. This is what they wanted.

The outcome, however, in this case is going the way that it should go. First of all, there should have never been a fucking case to begin with, because we did believe up until last year that a woman and a person with a uterus had the right to make the decisions about their own reproductive health and when and where and if they wanted to have a fucking baby.

So what I want to go back to is the thing that again, I feel like even when I was at the White House on Friday, I said, Wow, so this is a missed opportunity, because why are we celebrating Justice Katangi Brown Jackson because of Georgia and the two senators that one war Knock and Orseth oh Seth. Excuse me Warnock, who was currently trailing behind the black right

wing fucking Republican in Georgia. Without Stacy Abrams, Black Pack, Black Vote Matters, and all of the grassroots organizations that worked to get out the vote in Georgia, Joe Biden wouldn't have had a Supreme Court justice to bring because we wouldn't have had the numbers. And much in the same way that Mitch McConnell had blocked the seating of Merritt Garland, the confirmation hearing, even just blatant meetings, would

have been the same. So I said at the White House to the folks next to me, I said, you know what would be nice is if in the entire speech where everybody was thanking everybody, that the President of the United States said, and I want to say a special thank you to the people of Georgia for giving us war Knock and OSAF so that we could have this moment today. This is why voting matters right now.

Democrats are always tiptoeing around the fucking rules and the law and what you can and can't use the White House for. Meanwhile, if you recall, Donald Trump did an entire campaign event from the White House, which is actually illegal,

but of course Democrats don't hold him to account. There's a whole other fucking story, folks, that I'm going to be getting into in just a little bit about where we are right with finding out more information about what happened on January sixth, and what the House Commission is or is not considering doing following the mountains of evidence

that they have now on Donald Trump. But the reality is that if you don't consistently remind the people why the courts matter, why fucking voting matters, why it matters that Democrats hold the seats of power that they refuse to actually use to the fullest extent that they have. If you don't do that, then how are you getting people to actually get out and vote in a couple

of months for midterms? What case are you bringing to the American people if you're not going to use every opportunity that there's a fucking microphone in your face to tell the goddamn truth about what we are up against right. You have no problem poken at your chest for Ukraine, poken at your chest against Putin right and his violence and aggression. But are we not talking about how he's able to continue to do so because he's being uplifted

in this country by the radical right. Over the weekend I finally saw for read Zakira on CNN do an entire cold open about the global far right and do an entire like two three minutes on Tucker Carson, and how there He's like, if you were to just watch Fox News, you wouldn't even know there's a war in Ukraine. You wouldn't even know that we're on the brink of

a fucking nuclear meltdown in catastrophe. You would think he said that the biggest thing that we have going on for us here are battles at the school board and

critical race theory. So the point being obviously that those things are important because I talk about them on my show all the time, because I know exactly what Republicans are doing right while everyone is paying attention to the role level, they are staking their claim at the local and state levels, and they are putting their people in place because they believe that the next election, whether it is mid terms, right, which will be our first test

post twenty twenty, where we've put no guardrails in place to hold a free and fair election, knowing all of the fucking holes that we saw in twenty twenty, that they will have all the people in place to not certify the next election if it is Biden or another Democrat that wins, to say, oh, no, right, this is a false flag operation. We're not moving forward with this, and we decline to certify. We decline to certify and

set up a whole new group of electors. The reality, however, is that if we don't talk about it, then the people don't know. The other major story that happened over the weekend, and again I tweeted and I said, this shit is foreshadowing, and somebody wanted once again to come

for me. And I'm just like, folks like you don't know how I roll, So like, unless you're coming with a battery of facts and reports and stats and all of these things, don't think that you can come for me, okay, because I will light your entire shit up because I'm not in the mood, like I said, if the president of the United States can get it. If you think

that you on Twitter can't, you are sadly mistaken. But what happened is this over the weekend, it is now determined that the French election is going to be between McCrone and la Penn. Now Lapen is pretty much Donald

Trump in in women's clothing. She is a far right, bigoted zealot who wants to get rid of immigrants in France, who wants to like eliminate equity right, who pretty much wants to model France after Hungary, which by the way, is the only European nation outside of Russia because Russia is not a democracy whatsoever that they call a partial democracy because they have elections, they just don't mean shit, right,

And that's what Lapen wants. What is happening in the United States is happening all around the world, and it's started with Brexit, And so what when I said that, folks, what we are seeing right now is foreshadowing and people need to fucking pay attention that if Lapen wins, right, like, France is going to decimate they're standing in the free world following World War two, Like this is the kind

of stakes that we are living in. And I said specifically, this, the Macron and Lapin run off in France is going to be foreshadow for the world. Will the global far right succeed in reshaping the world or will democracy win?

These are the stakes for France, America and everyone. And so when you see me screaming my fucking head off, this is the type of shit that I am talking about that while everyone is in a place of disrepair following like the continuation of a global health pandemic, following you know, increased violence, right, increase white supremacy, global warming, inflation, a war in Ukraine. Like the amount of shit that is rolling downhill right on all of us is suffocating.

And so when you don't have your basic needs met and you are just being put up against a rock and a hard place, like I need to be making decisions about my medicine that I'm buying, and food on the table and clothing for my children, and my mortgage or my rent. You think you're given a fuck about what is happening outside of what you're dealing with in

your own household. No, but that's how fascism rises. Right whenever you look, if you look back in history to the spikes and fascism that we've had an authoritarianism around the world. It has all come from economic devastation, right, That's where the fuck we are. So this election, right is going to be extraordinarily terrifying. And you know, somebody said to me, well, Danielle, I don't know why you're saying this, because you know we had Brexit and Brexit

was foreshadowing. Yes, yes, Brexit was foreshadowing. And guess what. Most Americans have the fucking memory of a gnat. Right, you barely know, You barely remember all of the hot shit that Trump did over four years, because his four years felt like forty Those people who are not in politics day in and day out, regular Americans do not

remember how Boris Johnson got into office. And so what I'm saying is, if you are not doing the job of continually repeating the truth and deciding that you were going to stop leading from the fucking back, then how are you going to ignite people into a state of rage that is going to put them into action. And I don't mean the state of rage that Trump did

with their white grievance. I'm talking about the state of rage that you could lose everything that we've all taken for granted because we were born into this democracy that seemed with each generation to be getting better, that the arc was bending a little bit more, and the Obama

administration was the pinnacle of that moment. We felt like we fucking made it, but it was a blip on the radar, and we didn't do the work while he was in office to continue to build the pipeline to progress and think that it's not a one and done.

You know. It's like I said this the other day, you know, because sometimes and I say this all the time on the show, sometimes I ask myself why I continue to do the work that I do, because it absolutely drives me crazy and has made me at different points in my life very unwell, like emotionally unwell and

physically unwell because of the fucking stress. It's why I talk these days about self care and wellness because up until you know the pandemic, the beginning of the pandemic, I used to work seven days a week, right, had my regular job, had television, had writing, had a radio show,

and literally worked seven days a week. And so when you take that into consideration, the amount of work and effort that it takes to hold this country together, right and recognize that Americans have so many things going on. There is so much to fucking distract us. Right, and by virtue of living throughout a pandemic, working from home raising kids, like school shutting down, work shutting down. Now

we're having more spikes of COVID. To get folks to realize that their literal life depends on the next midterm election and the next presidential election is the only thing that I can think that matters. So when I see missed opportunities, particularly on the lawn of the White House, I'm saying to myself, do they not see the sense of urgency? Because I'm listening to former generals say we

haven't been this concerned since World War Two? When you're listening to Zelenski say, how many deaths is the right number for the world to do more than sanctions? Right, Like how many more Bouchas and marapaulse do you need? Because what we are learning as reporting is getting to these smaller suburban areas outside of Kiev, these smaller townships, the war crimes that are happening, the action of rape

and the weaponization of rape executions. They sent a missile and blew up a fucking train station, killing people in the act of trying to get out of harm's way. And we're still talking about, Oh, how is not taking Russian oil going to effect the European economy. It's going to fucking affect it. Do you know what else is going to affect it? World War three? So at what point do you make a decision between capitalism and your fucking integrity and morals? But this is where we are.

The last thing, the last story that I want to bring to your attention. Actually there is two more, the January sixth panel. I just shake my head. I shake my head because you know, I don't want to end the show with just a string of explicitives. But according to The New York Times, the January sixth Panel has evidence for a criminal referral which we knew to the Department of Justice on Donald Trump Junior, one of the stupider suns, and it's a toss up because they're both

dumb as bricks Junior. As part of the committee's investigation, not emails text messages have become available between him and Mark Meadows two days after the election on a series of ways to keep Donald Trump in power and what is incredible about this is that Junior says all of the things that shouldn't be said in text message ever, because you should always be paying attention to the fact that you know, particularly you learn from your mobster ass father.

But this is what he said, one of the things that he said to Mark Meadows in a text message two days following his loss. So again, what does that tell you that they all knew that Trump lost, They all knew that the election was free and fair. But what they were going to do regardless, because they are not patriots. They are treasonous criminals that need to be prosecuted for their role in trying to overthrow the fucking government.

But right now the January sixth Commission is deciding whether they think it's too political to make the referral because they know that the Department of Justice is opened an investigation into and I'm saying, so, if you know that it's already happening, but you've done more investigation and interviews over the last fucking year, why with the last thing that you can do, which is provide a letter of referral to the Attorney fuck in General stating that the

former president of the United States committed criminal activity and is part of the architecture to overthrow the fucking government. Why you wouldn't make that move because you're concerned with how it will look politically. I'll tell you how it's gonna look. It's gonna look like fascism if Democrats don't develop a fucking spine. That's how it's going to look. Because what Don Junior said is what Republicans are biting for. He said, quote, it's very simple. We have multiple paths,

we control them all. That is the only thing that you need to take away from this New York Times article is that they knew that they had lost, but that they knew that for a short amount of time before the January sixth certification, that they were going to attempt to obstruct the will of the American people because a hand full of Trumpers controlled different states and the vice President was going to seal the deal by deciding

not to certify the election. They are telling you what they were planning to do with the information that they had that Donald Trump lost fair and square, but they didn't give a fuck. So what do you think that they're going to do with a second bite at the apple? Because no one has taught them a lesson from the outset, because no one who is responsible for how we got here is in jail or indicted. So you tell me why. The one six Commission would say, mm, I don't know.

If it's gonna go too far. You have a fucking election and you ain't got ship to run on. You may want to try and run on this. They test my nerves. They test my fucking nerves because between the loss of abortion, the loss of voting rights, row back on LGBTQ equality, no movement on climate change. I mean, my god, it is sometimes embarrassing to continue to call myself a democrat. But then I have to hold on.

I got to hold onto the light and the love that I was filled with on Friday, watching and listening to Judge Katangi Brown Jackson and believing that there is still some shred of hope left, because if we don't hold on to that mustard seed, my god, the despair will consume us. That is it for me today, dear friends, on this wonderful Monday. I hope that we have a good week, but something tells me, something tells me that

it's going to be a lot. So make sure that you ground yourself and meditation, prayer, exercise, hydration, all of the good things, folks, because it's a long road to Friday. Has always power to the people and to all the people power. Get woke and stay woke as fuck.