Real political analysis in the Age of Censorship

The Hump Day Hot Topics

Running off at the Android...

***Happy Birthday to the original Hobbservation Point! 

Five years ago today, my original blog launched and in the time since, HP has become my main platform for "raking muck" in these internet streets!

I'm eternally grateful to a few dear friends: Former FAMU Journalism Dean Ann Kimbrough and legendary FAMU journalist Peter McKay for their parts in the initial launch, and my friend (and FAMU Sister) Sherry Pender for coining the name Hobbservation Point—one that signifies a brand that's been viewed by nearly a million visitors since 2017!

I am also grateful for my real life friends, the majority of whom hail from HBCU's, for lending their time and talents to HP's spin-off video and audio podcasts!

Former FAMU School of Journalism and Graphic Arts Dean Ann Wead Kimbrough helped me to get published in the NY Times in 2015—and then encouraged me to launch my own platform in 2017!

Last, I am beyond grateful for my loyal subscribers and followers; trust, the best is yet to come!!!

***So, there are few things that irk me more than hearing conservative whites whining about "cancel culture," "woke," and "Critical Race Theory."

The first two are Ebonics phrases that have always had specific meanings to Blacks from Generation X (born between 1964 and 1982) that coined them, with the former signifying accountability, while the latter warns about staying wary of white supremacists and systemic racism. The Ebonic variation of these words, I remind, are now being misappropriated and misapplied by white conservatives who think they sound "cool," when they actually sound like a bunch of privileged, petulant, pre-pubescents who don't want their own ilk held accountable for their parts in propagating systemic racism. 

The last, Critical Race Theory, was an obscure law school area of study, one developed by Black law professors, that analyzed American law, economics, and culture through the prism of systemic white racism. Today, it is the favorite catch phrase for conservatives who wish to rile their racist base by pretending as if Blacks are the "real racists" who are depriving whites of their rights. 

98.9999 % of Critical Race Theory critics don’t have a clue what it is—and they haven’t read one paragraph of arguably the greatest text in the genre, “Faces at the Bottom of the Well,” which was written by the late Derrick Bell, the first Black law professor at Harvard Law School.

Again, when I hear folks like Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Ron Desantis, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Sean Hannity, or John Kennedy saying these terms, it's like hearing nails running across an old school chalk board...

*** I commend Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the grace and class that she has displayed amid relentless attacks from Republican Senators Lindsay Graham, Tom Cotton, John Cornyn, Josh Hawley, and Ted Cruz over the past two days. 

These political geldings attacks simply prove, 1. There is nothing of true substance that renders Brown-Jackson unqualified; 2. That none is an intellectual equal of a woman whose experience far exceeds their own. 

***Having been asked the question on Facebook, yes, I find it quite disturbing that the right is attacking Judge Brown-Jackson for having served as a criminal defense attorney, and for exercising sentencing discretion from the bench during sexual molestation cases. 

First, it's rather ironic that the same men who jump up and down about their First Amendment rights to Tweet or say racist drivel, all the while bearing arms per the Second Amendment, seem to have a problem with Americans availing themselves of their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, or their Sixth Amendment rights to legal counsel. I mean, either you support the whole U.S. Constitution or you don't which, again, is amusing to see the same ones that pick and choose Amendments all of sudden waxing foolishly about "originalism" and the true intentions of their Founding Fathers.

Second, I can only shake my head at the unmitigated gall of Republican senators who supported accused sexual molester Brett Kavanaugh during his Senate confirmation hearings back in 2018, but now question Judge Brown Jackson about her sentencing hearings for accused molesters/pornographers while on the federal district court. To be clear, the men sentenced in Brown-Jackson's courtrooms served more punishment than a man like Kavanaugh (who wasn't even charged); more time than Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased molester who counted Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump among his close friends; charged with the same offenses that Matt Gaetz, the sardonic Florida Republican congressman, is currently under federal investigation for right this second! 

You shouldn't be clutching pearls about poor accused child molesters in senate hearings, but showing political fealty to rich (close) friends of child moslester Jeffrey Epstein…

The hypocrisy, indeed, is rich...

***I was somewhat surprised to learn yesterday that of the nine current (and retiring) Supreme Court Justices, that none had any criminal law or criminal judicial experiences prior to becoming members of the Supreme Court. 

2020-2021 U.S. Supreme Court

Each year, the Supreme Court renders decisions on myriad criminal law and procedure cases and yet, for well over a decade, none of the nine brought any real experience to their consideration of cases and controversies!

Indeed, should Judge Brown-Jackson get confirmed, she will rectify this gaping legal hole immediately!

*** It is almost a month to the day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and as of this morning, the Russians are still getting whipped by a supposedly inferior Ukrainian military.

Yes, that, too, surprises Ol' Hobbs! 

What won't surprise Ol' Hobbs is if Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin resorts to chemical or tactical nuclear weapons to save face. Such is why President Joe Biden is heading to Brussels, Belgium today to meet with NATO leaders, so that the military alliance can deliberate about what the appropriate Western response should be should Putin, a man who looks totally 'touched in the head' as the elders say, goes all Nero and fiddles while Europe chokes and burns from nuclear Hell fire. 

Stay tuned...

Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a great day!