SCOTUS & Black History

that they're going to ease their mask mandates. They're just going to stop using them for indoors because the omicron surge has begun to recede, and so let's continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. Here's the thing. When I woke up to the news, particularly coming out of New York that Governor Hokeel was going to ease indoor mask mandates, you know, to help businesses, well, I can tell you this, Governor, none of the businesses in

New York are fucking suffering. The fact is is that the rest of us who had begun to become accustomed to showing our vaccination to going back to indoor dining into a place where we could feel safe because we knew that the people that were proprietors have said business were following. I don't know the rules, the rules that were laid out not by you, Governor, but two years ago by your predecessor, who instead of following trends. And let me say, there's a lot to fucking say about

Andrew Cuomo. There's a lot to say about his relationships with women. There's a lot to say about his unprofessionalism and harassment, sexual harassment in the workplace. There's a lot to say about that. All of that said, I'm going to say this, which is wildly unpopular. Hi didn't follow the fucking bad pace that America was setting around the COVID nineteen pandemic. No, he set the pace. He allowed New York to set the pace for our COVID nineteen response.

And what Governor hokel is doing by lifting the mask mandates and saying, oh well, what about the children, isn't following the fucking science. It is following the poll numbers. So let's be clear about what is actually happening right now, because the reality is this. It took about six to seven months between the alpha variant of COVID nineteen and the delta variant. It took another six to seven months between the delta variant that ran rampant to then get

to omicron. So if you want to follow the fucking facts and follow science, then follow common sense that would tell you that as soon as this surge obates, that there is another one coming on its heels. So why you would all this side to give Republicans a win and talking points for the midterm election saying that Liberals and Democrats are just fearmongerers and just want to scare

you and scare your children and harm them. And now can hold up and say, well, see see they're even easing the mass mandates so that when the next fucking variant comes, which is inevitable, that then you're going to have to try and corral all of these people who you have guests lit into believing that we are quote unquote beyond the fucking pandemic, to try and go back into safety measures again. See how well that's going to fucking work. So here's what I realize and what I have.

What it is so hard for me to say, as someone that entered into politics twenty some odd years ago with great faith and naive belief that only a small group of people could change the world, that it was the earnest and the passionate, and those that would lift and harry the torches of people who have long since passed, activists and thought leaders and judges and representatives who stood for something. The reality is much that was expressed in

the Matrix resurrections. These people don't want to be woke, not the Democrats, certainly, not the fucking Republicans. They don't want to live consciously. They want to live under the cloud of capitalism and white patriarchy and white supremacy. Right, they want to be moved in that way. They are going to move and make decisions that are based on poll numbers and politics and midterm elections or presidential elections. They are not making decisions based on your well being. Right,

they would rather stay asleep. And so here is my note to the rest of us, to folks who actually care, don't look to your government to do things for you that you're not going to do for yourself, because, frankly, friends, we have reached a point in America the final fucking episode, right the series finale, we have reached a point where it is evident that it does not matter who is in charge. And I say that, I say that with

such frustration and anger. Sure you can tell me that if Donald Trump had been elected to a second term that the country would be in the shitter. Tell me how much worse things would be, because at least I would still have the belief that there were people that were out there that were wanting right to do the right thing, that we're willing to create equity and well

being and put public safety and health first. But what I realize now is that that is not the case, right, It's not so Republicans maybe rabid and cultish and disgusting and horrible cesspool of a party, but Democrats are no fucking better. So at this stage of the pandemic of our lives, of our awareness, I say this, take care of yourself. If you are headed into crowded public spaces and places, do what is best for you right to keep yourself safe, your community and those that you care

about safe. Because your government is no longer doing that. So whatever fucking guidelines that they're deciding to lift, it is not the science that they are following. It is nobody's recommendation that we do that, particularly fucking now, right, so we know what it is and it ain't about public health. That's number one. Number two is something that I have not covered on woke f and I'm going

to be better about doing so. Another breaking news story this week as we round out the week here, six schools in Washington d C. Six schools in Washington DC on Wednesday were evacuated, one of which was Dunbar, a school in Washington, DC that the Second Gentleman Vice President Kamala Harris's husband was visiting for a Black History Month. This is now just fucking the norm. Right, school shootings, we don't really blink an eye out anymore and less

you know, more than five kids are murdered. Right. Bomb threats, we don't blink an eye out unless something explodes. Right. There have been a series of bomb threats that have been happening at historically black colleges and universities HBCUs across this country. There have been a series of bomb threats at black churches across this country. Mainstream news has decided that that's not really important. We don't really care, We don't give a damn about collective public safety, and we

sure as fuck don't care about black people's safety. Right, So, when I saw the news break, you would think that it would put things out a standstill, right, that we would then have these conversations about what about the kids and what kind of world are we giving them and all of these things. The reality is is that no one gives a shit. Democrats don't give a shit. Republicans don't give a shit. Right. I watched a video. Let me tell you something. I watched a video of a

candidate for Texas. I would say that the woman is running for some type of state senate or something like that, who made the most disgusting, fucking claims about trans youth

and about how they make her feel uncomfortable. Because this is the new right, the new term that Governor DeSantis gave to the aggrieved, why rage filled racist and homophobes and transphobes and islamophobes and all of the fucking fobes right where you can say that you're uncomfortable, right, And she said she was uncomfortable with having a trans student in her classroom, that she couldn't allow the other kids to make fun of I shit, you fucking not go

on my Twitter and go find that video. It was absurd, It was disgraceful. Right, But you see, all you need to do in America is target right, a class of people, a group of people, a community of people that no one gives a fuck about, and then you do whatever you say, whatever you act, however right until eventually you move on from that marginalized group to another one that maybe has more backing, more money, more limelight, more awareness.

That's what America is going from. It's a fucking answer right that we are seeing that Republicans just spread and Democrats who just lay back and allow it to happen. And so, folks, I am at a place I'm not a place in my life and in my career where I am really asking myself what am I doing? What

am I doing? What have I spent the last twenty something years doing to try and create a better society, to try and wake people up to social ills that they may not have been aware of, with the naive belief that when people knew better, they would do better. Except what I am realizing and what is being mirrored back to me, is that Americans don't want to do better.

They don't want to know more, they don't want to expand their way of thinking, they don't want to think critically, they don't want to think critically, not about a pandemic, not about climate change, not about white supremacy, not about capitalism, not about anything. They just want the quote unquote norm right. They just want the ability to bury their heads in the sand and hope that everything around them doesn't crumble

because it's somebody else's responsibility to deal with. And So I sit here, and I'm gonna be transparent and honest. I sit here after years of being on radio and being a podcaster, after over a decade of being in media, over two right in being in politics, and I'm saying to myself, what the fuck am I doing with my life?

That is real fucking talk. Because if the premise is to make people conscious, but yet the people are telling you they would rather stay asleep, well then what I am doing doesn't actually make any sense anymore, does it. And so that's the place that I am finding myself and why I have said and at the beginning of the week, that we need more balance right in our lives, and we need to stop looking outside of ourselves for

that balance to come. It occurred to me on my walk today that you know, if you were to ask any black person in America, if you were to ask any Jewish person whose family survived the Holocaust, do you

believe right that government will keep you safe? Both of these groups, and I lift them up because there are both groups that have been in the press, in the media, in the crosshairs for the last couple of weeks because of Joe Rogan, because of the view, because of you know, be Goldberg and what's happening at Spotify and all of these things. If you were to ask them, do you believe that government, whether state, local, right, or federal, are

there to keep you safe? Will protect you as you are watching this assault happen right as you're watching schools get bomb threats, people armed right being able to shoot and kill whomever they want and get off scott free like Kyle Rittenhouse. When you see all of these things happening, I guarantee you there is not a person in either of those groups or people that live at the intersection that will tell you, oh, yeah, I totally have faith in government to keep me safe. It has been government.

Was government right in Germany that allowed for the persecution and murder of overseas million fucking people, right. It was government in the United States that allowed for enslaved Africans to be used as fucking human machines for centuries and then tortured thereafter with their laws right of inequity and injustice. So why now did I believe that we had moved to a place where government assumed the role of responsibility

to all of its citizens. No, because we are seeing the total and complete regression of that before long, dear listeners and watchers, Before long, the new Jim Crow error will be among us. And so if we are not finding ways to ground ourselves and center ourselves in something other than misery and recognizing that empires fall, they do right, and sometimes they fall into the hands of the good, but more than not they fall into the hands of those that are bad, and they take control for sometimes

a couple of years, sometimes decades and centuries. But what I know to be true is that the American Empire is falling, and there isn't any one person or group that is going to restore what people don't want restored. What the masses have decided that they want to ignore. They want back to normal, They want to hearken back to a time when they can ignore everything that is happening right and pretend all as well they want the

fairy tale of America, not the truth. And what's funny is that there has been so much excavation and unearthing over the last several years that you would think, right, you would think that would you would think, folks, that we would be charged up and feeling like we can make real change and real progress. But that progress, the little that we have made since reconstruction, is being snatched. It's being snatched from us, and Democrats aren't doing anything

to stop it. And so I sit here day after day really wondering at the end of each and every week, what I am doing, what any of us who have chosen this field and this profession are doing. What is the goal? Because you can't force people to open up eyes that they choose to keep closed. You can't force people to assume power that they are acquiescing for their ease and for their comfort. So then what do you do? My choice, my decision, and hopefully I can model it

for other people, is I'm choosing me. I'm going to choose joy. I'm going to continue to be aware right of what is going on and to share that information with all of you. But then I'm going to choose to fucking let it go, right, because it is not going to be my cross to bear, or any of our cross to bear until we are dead and gone. And it is important for us to realize that there

is only so much to do that now. That is not to throw up my hands right and let these people have their way with this country, but it is

to recognize that this is a marathon. The baton may be in our hands right now, but it's getting ready to be passed to the millennials, to Generation Z right and to the youth who have more energy, better ideas, better technology, and hopefully we'll figure out how we get farther in this race, in this marathon than we have because what we are giving to them to inherit is a legacy of gun violence, bomb threats, a climate crisis,

a global health pandemic, racism, its supremacy, transphobia, homophobia, misogyny. That's what our legacy is. That is what we are passing on. Coming up next is my conversation with our friend Ellie Mistole, who will talk about something good for a change, which is the litany, the long laundry list of exceptional black women for Joe Biden to choose from to replace Justice Bryer on the Supreme Court. That conversation

is coming to you next. Friends. You know that I am always so excited when friend of the show and friend of mine, Justice correspondent for the Nation, Ellie Mistol joins Woke f Daily to break down the latest and greatest in all America's legal woes. But for this episode,

my goodness, we have something good to talk about. Not the shit, not democracy crumbling, not the bad decisions that are coming out of Scotus, but Ellie, the potential that Joe Biden is going to be the first politician ever to actually uphold one of a campaign promises that they made to the black community, which was to imp point

a black justice. Now that we know that Justice Stephen Bryer is retiring at the end of this term, which is assuming at the end of June, right, yes, So tell us first, is this something we should be excited about? It is Black History Month, and I like to celebrate all things black all year three hundred and sixty five. But is this something that we should be excited about? Or is it like the Maya Angelou on the Quarter and the celebration of Juneteenth even though we can't talk

about Juneteenth in schools. Is it you know, is it something that is a to placate us or as yours that you wrote in In the Nation entitled the many remarkable Black women who could replace Stephen fryor please, it's something that we should be celebrating. Yeah, No, I think this is I think this is a good thing. First of all, Hi, thanks for having me. No, I think this is an objectively good thing, not just for the symbolism, although the symbolism is important. This country has been around

for almost two hundred and fifty years. There have been one hundred and fifteen Supreme Court justices. Zero of them have been black women. Only one of them has been a woman of color. In fact, the entire, the entire and the entire history of America, the justices who were not sis hetero white men are Thurgood Marshall, Clarence Thomas, Sandra Dale, O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elaina Kagan, Sonya Sotomayor, and Amy Coney Barrett. I just named them all off

the top of my head. Okay, Like that's that's how few non sis hetero white men have been in charge of reading and interpreting our laws. So yeah, it's a big deal when anybody who come who's not from that tradition gets on the court. It was a big deal when Amy Coney Barrett became only the fifth woman in history to be on the Supreme Court. And it's certainly a big deal when a woman of color gets an opportunity, and particularly a black woman. So all of these things

are are important and are more than mere symbolism. Is it going to change our lives? Probably? Now? Right, do we win the publisher's clearing house? No? Like this same there, No, black people are not going to get a prize in the mail because the black woman is on the Supreme Court right now, right, the balance of power doesn't change. It's still a six three court which will take rights away from black and brown people and women. Um, so

that is still like happening. Um there. A friend of mine said that it's typical right that that we're gonna nominate a black woman onto the Spring Court just in time for her to try to clean everything up, because because the court's a mess right now and there's nothing one black person. Um, no matter how kind of remarkable and exceptional she may be, there's no way she can stop the madness um that is gripped the white wing

and right wing on the Supreme Court right now. Um, So it's not it's not a life changing appointment or opportunity and the same it's not the same as when Republicans frankly were able to steal the seats um from Barack Obama and get Neil Gorsuch on the score. That

was a life changing momentum. This is not that, um, But it's still important, it's still it's still positive, and it's still again I think unquestionably good, not just because she's gonna be a black woman, but when you look at the kinds of people that Biden is looking at, these are some really strong UM candidates, right, Like, I don't want it's not it's not like you're looking for for Candice Owens, right. You're not going to point me a love to the to the court, right, So it's not.

It's not. It's going to be a person who happens to be a black woman who also is going to do, you know, and believe and write a bunch of other kinds of things and opinions, um, that are going to be on the court for the next you know, hopefully thirty years. So you know, I want to talk for a minute about the polls, which you know, folks who listen to Woke app and listen to me know that I take poles with a grain of salt, but because we use them in politics, Uh, it's it's important to

lift up. So there's a pole that is going around um and I saw it at the Hill dot com, which is saying that most Democrats are excited about this excited about the potential of this choice, the symbolism of it, but also how they believe it can help energize the Democratic base right now at a time when we need energy and passion and excitement as we head into mid terms.

But there is of course like forty percent of the population and probably more depending on how you ask the question and to whom and where that is using the usual defense, Ellie, which you brought up in your piece. So I just want to give you an opportunity to speak to it, which is, why can't Joe Biden just pick the most qualified person? Why does race have to even play in? Why did he even have to say and articulate that he was going to place a black

woman on the court. Why couldn't it just be I'm going to place the most qualified you know candidate on the court. Please articulate. You are pushed back to that constant refrain that we hear. Yeah. So a couple of things. One, why don't Republicans place the most qualified person on the court Because they don't. Okay, they place the most qualified white person on the court. Right. Donald Trump made two hundred and twenty six federal judge appointments. Eighty five percent

of those appointments were white. Seventy five percent of those appointments were male. You cannot tell me within good faith that in our entire country, the most qualified qualified judge eighty five percent of the time is going to be a white person in a country that's only about sixty

percent white. Easimply, can't make me believe that. You cannot tell me, in a country that's about evenly split between men and women seventy five percent of the time, the most qualified person to be a judge is gonna be a man. That just eight true. All right, So number one, y'all are the ones who are a little bit obsessed with race and gender when you pick yo judges. Number one.

Number two, if we're talking about qualifications. You can't get more qualified than some of the judges that Biden could pick, even if he just focuses exclusively on the underrepresentative community of black women. All Right, you don't have a better resume than some of these other women. You have at best and as good resume as some of these other women. Right, So the question of qualifications is really it's really reductive because there are I mean, it depends on how you

think about this. I actually think that the Supreme Court that it's a lot easier to be a Supreme Court justice than we think, right, Like, I think it's comparatively harder probably to be a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon than it is to be a Supreme Court justice. But even if you want to say that there is some you know, level bar whatever for qualifications, how many people do you think in the country could be a

Supreme Court justice? Right? I've got about like a million, right in a country of three hundred and twelve million people. I figure a good, cool easy million people day could be a Supreme Court justice. Right, So you're gonna have to if you're gonna have to whittle it down from a million or so into some kind of manageable number

of three or four or five picks. And when you start to whittle it down, even if you just focus on one underrepresented group, you're gonna find four or five six people who are as qualified or more qualified than

everybody else. That's just how it works. If he only was gonna look at Asian Americans, he would find four or five six qualified Asian Americans who were more qualified or as qualified or anybody else if he focused on if he focused on the people who went to Disney World in a three week period, he find one or two people that are amazingly qualified for the Supreme Court. Right, So the argument that he is somehow not picking the

most qualified people is bollocks on its face. He is going to pick somebody who is as qualified as any justice sitting on the Court, and as any potential justice out there. The issue is simply that instead of being let Republicans and and favoring white males, hetero dudes, he's going to focus on a different group. And I applauded

for it. Look, I said at the beginning after what Trump did, and I don't think people really under fully understand Trump is like the first president since Nixon not to place a black woman on a federal court, all right, like after Trump's, after what Trump tried to do to

just whitewash the federal judiciary. I said, I think around the inauguration that if ye have ask me to be a white man on a federal to get a federal judge appointment from this Democratic administration and be a white man man, you'll ask be a belabierable to fly right like you better like like I'm a judge and I George cancer, Like you have to have some kind of amazing qualification because right now there is a backlog of immensely qualified, overqualified people who couldn't get a look in

the previous administration, and quite frankly don't get a look whenever there's a Republican administration. Some of these people that we're talking about as finalists for the Biden appointment, why didn't Trump vent some of these people? If all he was concerned about was qualifications. Trump himself said that he wanted a woman to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That's Trump's words,

not mine. The National Review wrote that they wanted a woman to replace Gibbsburg so that when they overturn Roe v. Wade, there would be a woman on their side. That's their words, not mine. So since they were so interested in getting a woman, why didn't they that any of these very well qualified women. One of the finalists was actually a finalist for the merit for the appointment that went to Merritt Garland that shouldn't unfortunately went to Merritt Garland during

the Obama administration. Why wasn't she brought back in for an interview with Trump? Because because Trump cared about the race of the woman quite a bit, you know, And I just I you know. One of the reasons and one of the many reasons why I always have you one Wokate app is for this is for the straightforwardness, is because you know, all Republicans do is perpetuate a race war. All they do is think about race and how it factors into every decision that it is that

they are making. But because there because their default is whiteness, right, because we have no idea how to actually talk about race and racism in this country, we allow them to get away with it. Right. I don't remember any headlines talking about any of the selection of Donald Trump's of them being seventy five percent mail and eighty five percent white. I don't remember that being a part of the of

the conversation. I do remember the American Bar Association saying a lot of those motherfuckers were not qualified to be attorneys in general, let alone be sitting on anybody's federal bench. So you know, I think that coming right here, Yes, that point goes back back to where you start with the polls. Right. What you'll note is that the Hell and the ABC and the Wall Street Journal didn't pull people on whether or they thought eighty five percent of

the judges should be white under the Trump administration. Nobody asked them that. Nobody asked them if they thought seventy five percent of the judges should be mail under the Trump administration. They never ask the American people if they're okay with what white people do. They only ask the American people. They only ask the American white people if they're okay when a black person gets promoted or gets

put in the spotlight. Right. So, yeah, of course, if you ask a bunch of white people would you like to have less power today? What are they gonna say? How do you think half of them are gonna respond? Come on, that's not even that's not even a fair or right right question. And we know they know it's not a fair or right question because they never ask it in the reverse. They never ask it on the

other side, So we know what the game is. The question is simply, do Democrats have the ability and intestinal fortitude to stand up to this bullcrap and keep keep mosying on and doing what they We're gonna do anyway, so far for this particular appointment, in part because of how just brazen Lee McConnell and the Republicans have manipulated the court. I think they well, but you know, the attacks are gonna come down. You know. One of the reasons why I've been so out front and writing about

this is that we know what they're gonna do. We know what they do to any black person who kind of rises above the noise. We know what they do to any black person when you when they can focus on just one black person, right, Like, it's a little bit harder when they have to deal with all of us at the same time, right, But when they can and they can isolate, it's like hunting, right, they can isolate one of us, you know, from the group, when they can put us off to the side. Then it

becomes like a real rally, you know, just a feeding frenzy. Yeah, we know whoever Um Biden picks is going to be subjected to the worst kinds of attacks. It's already started. He hasn't even named a person. And the Republicans cannot chew a meal with their mouth clothes without blurting out some kind of like, oh, also, black women don't the law. Oh Joe Kennedy to John Kennedy today, will up this morning?

I saw it on Twitter today, was like, I won't, uh just this, that's gonna read a Noul book, not the Jay Crew catalog. What the fuck does that mean? What? What? What freaking lawyer is reading a Jay Crew catalog? Like it makes no sense? But they've already started in on it, and they and it hasn't even named a person and the attacks have already started. Can you imagine how bad it's going to be when there's an actual human being that they can that they can punch. You know what

what this brings up for me too? I mean, I know that it is an incredible honor right to serve on the Supreme Court, or at least it used to be before we put anybody and anybody on there, um you know, rapists, uh included. Um. But you know, I wonder too of the women that you've listed, right, like you know and and you listen, and I want in a couple of minutes that we have left to actually run through, um, some of those whose names you've lifted up.

But you know, there may be people who are just like, yeah, I'm good, right, like in this political in this political climate, like you know, thanks so much for thinking of me, but like I'm okay, right. Do you do you think like that that is a that is a potential as well that you could be called on by your president and be like, yeah, so I see the way you're

doing your vice president. So I'm actually good. There were people I thought about putting on my list and didn't because I didn't want to draw attention to that because they're my friends and like I don't want to like like I hadn't you know, I hadn't run it by her, I hadn't run it by this woman. I hadn't want to buy that woman, whether she even wanted that kind

of attention, Um, that could happen. You know, these are I'm talking about people who you know law academics or people whom are are not famous, right, And the attention that you can get from the very worst people in the country when you start getting bandied about, even on a shortlist, much less the actual nominee, it's really really intense and it's not fun. It will not be nice

for these people. Look, I every I think most people ultimately would take it because it's because it's it's you know, because it's a really I mean, look at alleged attempt at rapist Kavanaugh, Look at handmade in amy covid Barrett, look at Neil Gorsage. Right, it's a bad few weeks and then a lifetime of inscrutable power from which you can functionally not be fired. Who doesn't take that, right, I'll take you know, it's it's it's Avon Barksdale. You can only do two days in jail, right, the day

you go in and the day you come out. I don't go through the confirmation that you're anging be like, I only got to deal with this for two days. The first day it's gonna be bad, and the last day it's gonna be bad, and then I'm there for life, right, And I think most people would would would make that same calculus. Um. And so so I feel like this, I don't think Biden's gonna have trouble you know, finding volunteers. Um, but it's gonna be for whoever. Epics is gonna be bad,

and it's gonna be bad from both sides. Like we know the kinds of racist Republican things Republicans the side, but let's not forget that. We also have a very you know, what's what's the nice word of saying it. We also have well meaning lights who warned us about right right, you're a wonderful moderates right um that don't like controversy and are very subtile susceptible to the Oh, I would totally support a black woman, but not that black woman, right like, we like we know that that's

gonna be a thing. We also have a kind of well meaning hard left, uh white progressives who have kind of made a cottage industry of taking shots at pretty much any black person ever. I mean, like, I there are some people on the art left who I cannot name a black person they actually like, right like, just

always seem to have extra smoke. Um, Um, what a black person says, does or believes anything so like there's that, and there is also in the black community of I don't I don't think this is a huge part of the issue, but it's gonna be part of the issue. We are talking about black women now, aren't we, And that there is a part of the black male community that doesn't always support the sisters. Um uh so, so that that is going to be I think an undercurrent

um of a small one. And the same way that you know, all of these groups are small individually, right, There's not a lot of white progressives who only have smoke for black people. They're not a lot of black men who don't support black women. They're not a lot of white liberals for that mealy mouth and weak. But when you put them all together, and when you get you have a slash and a cut, and a slash and a cut, and the slash and the cut, it

can kind of snowball on itself. To give a person who isn't paying attention, who's only looking at it from a kind of thirty thousand foot view, Man, was this

the right nominee at all? Maybe we should have nominated like, maybe we should have nominated Oprah um So run us through with a couple of minutes that we have just run us through the black women that you lifted up in your piece and just give us like a snapshot into why they made it to your to your list and many people's list, but more importantly to your list.

Cantanji Brown Jackson as the leader in the clubhouse. She was the woman I was referring to who was a finalist for the position that eventually was went to Merrick Garland back under Barack Obama. So she's been well vetted by at least one White House and Biden probably already knows her, at least as an impression of her. Um, she's very well educated, long long time serving on the bench. Uh,

you know, very smart, history of writing, very good opinions. Um. She's she's left of center, but she's not a crazy She's not like me, right, she's not crazy left. It's a reasonable um um leftist uh person. So she's because of all of that, she's just she's the more she's one of the more unassailable UM picks, and I still think that she's gonna be the one. However, You've got a strong uh candidate and Michelle Child, who is a

district judge in South Carolina. Um, she has the support of Jim's CLI James Climber, And uh, that's that's big, especially in the Biden administration. Congressman Cliburn saved that Biden that campaign and Biden knows it. Um. Also, Uh, just Judge Child, Um, she got her BA from University of South Florida. She got her um law degree from the University of Carolina. We just don't have that kind of educational experience on the bench, you know, on the Supreme

Court until Amy Coney Barrett. All of the lawyers currently on the Supreme Court were from Harvard and or Yah. Yeah, any Coney barretts from No Dame. So another kind of ritzy private school. So having a lawyer that went to like a state university to get in a law degree like that alone, that's that's more. That's diversity in more ways than one. So that and remember Scranton Joe got his law degree from from Syracuse. You know he ain't no fancy Ivy League lawyer himself, right, So like that

could really be a thing Um that Biden latches onto. Um. I've looked Charyl and Eiffel is in the running. She's the current she's the head of the nuble ACP Legal Defense fun You just can't find a better fighter for civil rights in our generation than CHERYLN. Eiffel. Um, she's amazing.

She's an amazing lawyer. If you don't think that being in the head of the NABACP League Defense Fund is a good qualification for the Supreme Court, I will remind you that that was thur good Marshall's old job before he was nominated to the Supreme Court. So there's some symmetry there, having the first black man come from the LDF and the first black woman. Yeah, that would be Dye. And there's some other candidates. Leandre Kruger California, a state's

Supreme Court judge. She's only Leandre Cruger's only forty five. That's a big plus in her category. All of the women I listed, by the way, are under sixty under fifty, which is how Republicans have been rolling with it, right. Um, So she's she's an amazing writer, an amazing advocate. She was a Deputy Solicitor General during the administration and really developed a reputation for eloquence in her arguments. Um, and

also is very quite progressive. So you know there again, you're not going to get better resumes than these people. K KBJ. Brown Jackson. We're talking Harvard, Harvard Law School, eight years on the bench, head of the US Sentence in Commission Cormal Federal prosecutor. You know, Krueger, Harvard, Yale Law Editor of the Yale Law Review, Sharrow Leife. We've already talked about childs um Uh, you know, longstanding justice judge in the Distreccord of South Carolina. You don't get

better resumes than people these people. You get as good resumes as these people. So let me ask you final question, Ellie. Um let's bar reality for a minute and go into an America that is one that we would want to actually live in, right and we didn't have to worry about the politics and all of the mine fields. If you had your wand your gavel and we're making this decision, who would you choose? I know you listed five, but

who would be your pick? Pick? Oh? You like? Tiffany Cross asked me the same question on the television and I said, look, I'm planning of you. Look, I'm rooting for everybody black. I got no favorites. Whoever it is, I will support I love all them. I love black people like that. Just I'm I'm, I'm for everybody. Um, look there, Cantanji Brown Jackson is the favorite for a reason. And I know this is going to sound a little bit self serving because I also went to the big Harvard.

I have a similar kind of resume as she did, and the only she went out to work and I just as I went to my basement to write like this. So it's been self serving. But I in this context, the reason why people end up on the Supreme Court from like two or three law schools is because the opposition it's always about, oh, they're not especially when you're talking about women or women of color, it's always old, they're not smart enough, they don't deserve to be there,

but black. And so when you have these like educational it's almost like a shield, like what are you gonna say? And so that's one of the reasons why she favorite. The other reason why she's a favorite is that she is the one that I know has been vetted the most because she almost got this job under Obama. So like, you know, one of the things that I didn't get to say, that's important. Every whoever Biden picks will also have the moral qualifications to be on the Supreme Court.

And you can't say that about Republicans ee. But to make sure that you have the moral qualifications, people got to be able to go into your history and you know, if they find you. Understand, if they find a parking ticket, Marsha Blackburn will use that against them at the hearings, right, So like you have to be so squeaking you have lived your life in such a way that's very limited me.

And for the most part, I'm sure I feel confident that Brown Jackson has just because she's been through this before Cheryl and Eifel quite frankly has two She's been in the public life for so long. I also have a really good sense that she has been deeply vetted for this position. So you know, these are my favorites. Then become like who's easiest to confirm? I mean, people keep saying like, oh, our mansion and Cinema are gonna

stay on board. Yeah, Look, for the most part, Mansion and Cinema have been on board with the judicial appointments. It's all the policies that there they've been against. And frankly, Brown Jackson was recently appointed to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to replace Merritt Garland when Garland went to be Attorney General, and she got fifty three votes right, Collins, Kowski, and Lindsay Graham all voted for her for the DC Circuit.

So if Biden can put forward a person who can get even one Republican vote, that that could be a big, a big help going forward. Child's One of the reasons why Childs is interesting is that she's from South Carolina and Tim Scott, Tim tool Scott is sitting right there. And while I have no I have completely believed that Tim Scott hasn't in him to vote against the first black woman justice, because yes, that that's what that dude

is all about. But when but is you gonna have to Is he gonna vote against the first black woman justice from his dam Yeah, that would be something would in it? Right? So you know, these are these are why the people who are the favorites are the favorites. It's not just their resumes, is that they bring other things to the table politically that could make them easier

to confirm. So I so, so my favorite is the person who's easiest to confirm at this point, because I don't want Republican Shenanigans and I don't want Democrats to lose heart. I mean, there was this we gotta scare, we gotta scare this week and we found out that Senator LeJean Um was treated last weekend for a stroke, and we you gotta remember, the majority is so tenuous. Any of these people get hit by a bus and

you lose the majority. And Mitch McConnell will not let a replacement, you know, be voted on if he's in charge, just won't let it happen. So we have to move quickly. We have to move with with with with more than deliberate speed, and we have to get this confirmation through kind of with as little drama as possible. And I'm for that. Um, what is the time frame, Ellie? They confirmed Barrett in twenty seven days? Hey, let's they confirm Amy Coney Barrett in twenty seven goddamn days. I think

it's gonna be longer than that. But look, we're in Black History month. As you said, Biden will announce, and I'm like, twenty seven days sounds good to me. If it's good, if it's good for the white COVID lady, then it's then it's fine. Then it's fine for me. Biden will announce this during Black History Month. You can bank on that, and remember he's got to save the

union on March first. I wouldn't be surprised if that saved the union is timed with re announcing the pick and then being like, go vote for her now and those hearings have in March. That would be my guess

at this point. Okay, well, Ellie, once be confirmed from when Bryer leaves the batch Injie, well, please make sure to come back to woke F when the announcement is made so that we can dig deeper into that choice and then understand the everest of assaults that they're going to be up against, sadly from both the right and the left. As always, Elie Mistole, we appreciate your presence and your passion on woke F. Thank you so much for making the time for us. Thank you so much

for having me. I don't know, folks, but I will tell you this. It is why I am making it, making a conscious effort, and what I have realized as I transition right now into what I am going to refer to as our woke moment of wellness until I can come up with a catchy name, and maybe you all have a catchier name that I can use, And so please do share any branding marketing ideas. But as I transition right now into our woke moment of wellness,

I want to share with you this story. I want to close out with this because it brought me joy today and I realize that happiness enjoy is something that you have to be vigilant about, that you have to be intentional with that it doesn't just happen right, that there needs to be intent and tools and tactics that you are using to stay above the freight to be

able to continue to vibrate higher. So for the past two months, rights as folks have seen and no, I have been recording from home, and I've been staying home as Amicron was raging out of control in New York. I said, I had the priviledge to be able to work from the comfort of my home. So I'm going

to do that. And over the course of the last two months, you know, we have seen spikes and now we are seeing this receding of this, this iteration of COVID, and so you know, I have been feeling very restless. I've been feeling very depressed. I have been feeling like I have just been languishing. And my sister, who you all know, you know, it's just like, well, what's you know, aside from what we all know, what is going on?

And I told her, I said, I hadn't been walking, I hadn't really been leaving the house, and it had occurred to me that I have been. I had regressed. I had gone back to crouching over my computer, to having the news on in the background twenty four to seven, and it felt like the walls were closing in. And I said, and on top of that, it's fucking winter and it's free outside, and I don't necessarily want to go out, even to do my walks, which bring me

so much joy and energy. And she said to me, Danielle, there is no bad weather. There is just bad clothing, and so layer up and get the fuck outside. If you don't, you're going to go crazy and lo and behold, my sister, My big sister was one hundred percent right. I did. I grabbed my fuzzy socks and boots and layered up my pants and put on multiple shirts and my heavy winter coat, and it was twenty four degrees outside last week, and I decided to go on at

least a twenty minute walk. I stayed outside for forty five minutes. The air felt so crisp on my face, in my lungs. I came home and my apartment felt different. I felt different. I felt like I had released, you know, some pent up energy that just the movement and the connection to the outdoors and listening to my music and just being able to move. I had put myself back in this quarantined prison right even going outside for a walk. I had scared myself out of doing and made excuses

that it's winter and oh, I'll just wait for the spring. Well, guess what, folks, We're not bears. We can't just hibernate. We need to find ways to live and do so safely, right, but to remember to live, And I had forgotten over the last two months. I couldn't understand why I was feeling so anxious, so fearful, so frustrated, so heavy. Nothing changed in the world right while I started walking again, But I changed, and I was able to open up so that I could hold a little more but also

release a lot. So yesterday on my walk I had over the past couple of years, there was this gentleman, black man, lovely smile that sits on a bench and he literally knows every single person. Everyone knows him. The workers in the park know him, the runners, the walkers, the dog walkers, the people with the nanny's, the people with their kids. Everybody knows him. Waves, stop, sits down. He just offers a bit of lightness in your day.

And because for two months it had been really cold and the weather had been quite shit, I hadn't seen him, and I saw him this week and we don't really know each other. We just have exchanged names and we exchange pleasantries. But there's something so wonderful about remembering to be human, to just smile for no reason, to offer people a kind word or a wave. And that's what he does. And so he told me yesterday as he was asking, you know, Danielle, how are you doing? How

are you doing? Really, I said, you know, I explained all the things that I just said to all of you, and he said to me, life is too short, so live tall always. That is what my park friend, Edwin said to me. And I stood there looking at him as he said it, and he said it again. Life is too short, So live tall always. That's what I

will leave you all with today. I think that when we get caught up in the fear and the anxiousness and the anger, in the rage, in the frustration, in the languishing, we forget that life really is short and that it is for the living. We were all born with an expiration date that we don't know the date of, and there is a lot that is going on, and I'm not saying to pretend that it doesn't exist, but I am saying that we need to figure out a way to get back to living and reminding ourselves of

that every single day and being intentional about how we live. That, friends, is your woke moment of wellness. That is it for me today, as always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.