#U.S. Senator Cory Booker

[makeusfly]

Thank You Senator Booker

Tomorrow is World Autism Awareness Day, and that is what this post was supposed to be about. But something absolutely incredible happened yesterday/today and we have to talk about it. At 7 p.m. on March 31, 2025, Senator Cory Booker (Democrat of New Jersey) stood on the Senate floor and started to speak. He spoke about the Republican administration’s decimation of the federal government and…

[thenewdemocratus]

ABC News: Senator Cory Booker Stages Overnight Filibuster in Senate to Protest President Trump & Elon Musk

“Democratic Sen. Cory Booker was still speaking Tuesday afternoon on the Senate floor — continuing a filibuster he started at 7 p.m. Monday night — in protest against the national “crisis” he says Pres. Trump and Elon Musk have created. “I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis, and I believe that not in a partisan sense, because so many of the people that have…

[thelovebudllc]

Cory Booker’s 19-Hour Senate Speech: Record-Breaking Marathon Blasting Trump’s Policies

Cory Booker, the Democratic senator from New Jersey, is getting a lot of attention. He’s close to a big milestone with his 19-hour speech blasting Trump. The speech started at 7 p.m. EDT on a Monday and went into the morning. Booker is dedicated to helping Americans who are hurt by current politics. In his Cory Booker Senate speech, he strongly criticized former President Donald Trump’s policies.…

[sbrown82]

This man filibustered for almost 25 hours, breaking racist ass Strom Thurmond’s record when he went against the Civil Rights Act back in 1957. This is what leadership looks like! 🫡

Thank you Senator Booker and thank you to your staff.

[nudityandnerdery]

He's currently speaking, it's on C-Span right now.

[dotthings]

Senator Cory Booker of NJ (the one who is friendly with Misha, he's an SPN fan) just took to the senate floor this evening and is calling out all of Trump's horrible policies. He said he intends to hold the floor as long as he is physically able to keep talking. It's taking senate business to a grinding halt--classic filibuster. It's happening.

There's a livestream here:

[maswartz]

[mariacallous]

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), one of the lawmakers who has been the most outspoken about President Donald Trump defying court orders to return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador, has a stark warning for everyone living in the U.S.

“If we allow the Trump administration to disregard court orders and tear up the rights to due process, then the freedom of every American is in jeopardy,” Van Hollen told HuffPost in an interview Tuesday.

Van Hollen said he plans to visit El Salvador this week and hopes to finally put eyes on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the 29-year-old sheet metal worker and father of three currently detained at CECOT, a prison with a reputation of horrific human rights abuses. He said he has been in touch with U.S. embassy officials in El Salvador to plan the logistics of his trip.

“I think it’s important to go try to see him and see what his conditions are and try to meet with government officials there to discuss his release,” Van Hollen said.

CECOT is a high-security facility and visits are not permitted. People held there are also not allowed outdoors, according to The Associated Press.

Van Hollen tried unsuccessfully to arrange a meeting with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, when he was in Washington, D.C., on Monday to meet with Trump. In his meeting with Trump, Bukele said he would not assist in returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S. and claimed he did not have the authority to “smuggle” him into the country.

Other lawmakers in Congress are trying to work out a trip to El Salvador. Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) have requested the trip be arranged as a congressional delegation, known as CODEL, Axios reported. Rep. James Comer, (R.-Ky.), who chairs the House Oversight Committee, would need to approve the request. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is also reportedly looking to visit El Salvador, but it is unclear when that would occur.

[crows-are-gathering]

“Senator Cory Booker, who took to the Senate floor this week with a 25-hour speech, capped his heroic effort with a volley of texts and emails asking for money. That’s not how you build a movement.”

“In March, off-duty park rangers led demonstrations in more than 100 locations, from Abraham Lincoln’s home to Zion National Park. Postal employees, who work for an independent federal agency and number about 635,000 nationwide, held similar rallies in more than 200 places.

Federal workers are also protesting inside the U.S. Capitol, testifying at community impact hearings and speaking up at town halls. “

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

It’s been quite a week.

On Monday, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) began an epic speech in the Senate calling out the crisis in which the nation finds itself. He finished just over 25 hours later, on Tuesday, setting a new record for the longest Senate speech. In it, he urged Americans to speak up for our democracy and to “be bolder in America with a vision that inspires with hope.”

Shortly after Booker yielded the floor on Tuesday night, election officials in Wisconsin announced the results of an election for a seat on the state supreme court. The candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump and backed by more than $20 million from billionaire Elon Musk lost the race to his opponent, circuit court judge Susan Crawford, by more than ten points.

On Wednesday, April 2, a day that he called “Liberation Day,” President Trump announced unexpectedly high tariffs on goods produced by countries around the world. On Thursday the stock market plummeted. Friday, the plummet continued while Trump was enjoying a long weekend at one of his private golf resorts.

And then today, across the country, millions of people turned out for “Hands Off” protests to demonstrate opposition to the Trump administration, Musk and the “Department of Government Efficiency” that has been slashing government agencies and employees, and, more generally, attacks on our democracy.

In San Francisco, where Buddy and I joined a protest, what jumped out to me was how many of the signs in the crowd called for the protection of the U.S. Constitution, our institutions, and the government agencies that keep us safe.

Scholars often note that the American Revolution of 250 years ago was a movement not to change the status quo but to protect it. The colonists who became revolutionaries sought to make sure that patterns of self-government established over generations could not be overturned by officials seeking to seize power.

We seem to be at it again….

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[mswyrr]

[cleolinda]

Weekend links: April 6, 2025

My posts

I'm STILL working on the fourth video writeups for our Silent Hill 2 project, and I am a bit frustrated that life is getting in the way. 

(OH AND ALSO I HAVE A CAVITY AND FRAUDULENT BANK CHARGES)

Anyway (ANYWAY?!) Ian's fourth stream is up. HE HAS SEEN WHAT I RECORDED AND ANSWERS MY QUESTIONS I SWEAR IT'S REAL. 

Reblogs of interest

If you'd like to help the survivors of the Myanmar and Thailand earthquake, World Central Kitchen and MSF/Doctors Without Borders are on the ground.

Val Kilmer passed away earlier this week.

"babe are you ok you reblogged 'it's coming back but we'll see it through' again"

The Buffalo Nations Grasslands Alliance is raising money to save black-footed ferrets on tribal grounds, after the current administration froze conservation funds.

RIP Stumpy the cherry tree, who will live on through his cuttings in D.C.

James Baldwin: "Love will simply have no choice but to go into battle with space and time and, furthermore, to win." 

"You lead a very interesting life"

Don't take the easy way out with AI: "Imagine what you can do if you learn to bullshit like I can bullshit"

The Sad Bastard Cookbook, a free e-book for your low spoons

"Put baby in pelican mouth for Instagram photo. Facebook photo of baby in pelican mouth for many likes"

How Many Cigarettes are in any given movie?

In defense of Mr. Darcy's proposal

Going snail mode

A hungry axolotl: "Fuckibg superb you funky little kirby"

Grip, snacking at my chamber door

"More actual things that happen in the 1897 Dracula novel without context"

A recommendation for A Dictionary of Color Combinations

Like I knew Ariana Grande had been up to some shit but I wasn't ready for this

Love a perfume review that says "Nothing wrong with a bit of fear"

"It’s a misconception that the mimics are hunting humans when they trail along at the back of hiking groups"

"But hey, there’s nothing wrong with having a completely absurd contingency plan. In case of time loops."

Video

Wet Beast Wednesday: Pitiful cranky baby otter sounds

Star Wars was not worthy of Amandla Stenberg and her violin (bring back The Acolyte if you want to prove me wrong)

Yes, Rick Astley has more songs

Hybrid Calisthenics: "Being on the right path often FEELS better and more natural - even if it’s more work."

Is this cat a goalie, technically?

"Sexy Nation Army," a mashup (only technically "video")

The sacred texts

"for april fools we’re deleting this entire site sayonara you weeaboo shits"

"when will mcr return from the war"

Personal tags of the week

1) Art, which had some real bangers this week, including Remedios Varo, Mexican Gothic, Diane & Leo Dillon, a genuine Hokusai print found at an antique market, a wee Eohippus, something that doesn't listen, AND MORE;

2) Honestly birds had some good ones as well;

3) One orange braincell had two good ones, including a painting of a cat about town;

4) and U.S. politics, since there were some good things:

First, Senator Cory Booker gave a marathon speech for more than 25 hours, reading from "multiple three-ring binders, including articles from bipartisan sources and letters from his constituents, in what he called 'terrified people' with 'heartbreaking' stories" in protest of the current administration, and breaking Strom Thurmond's filibuster record (which "itself was a last ditch attempt to block the Civil Rights Act"). And it was not just a filibuster; it was representation.

Meanwhile, April 5 had “Hands Off” demonstrations across all 50 states, "targeting threats to democracy, bodily autonomy, and climate justice." Here's how the St. Paul, MN, protest went (direct link for the tags).

[beardedmrbean]

The South Jersey business owner who defied Gov. Phil Murphy’s COVID lockdown orders by keeping his gym open, racking up dozens of court summonses, has been cleared of all charges, his attorney said Tuesday.

Ian Smith, co-owner of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, opened his facility during the coronavirus pandemic in May 2020 in defiance of a state-ordered closing of nonessential businesses. Police arrested some gym members as they left after workouts at the facility.

Smith and co-owner Frank Trumbetti were fined more than $165,000 and faced more than 80 summonses charging them with violating a governor’s orders, operating without a mercantile license, creating a public nuisance and disturbing the peace.

At one point, the state Attorney General’s office recommended fines of up to $10,000 a day and imprisonment for the owners of Atilis if they did not shutter their business. Many of the charges also carried up to six months in jail, said Smith’s attorney, John McCann of Oakland in Bergen County.

“When you look at this, it didn’t make a lot of sense at the time. It kind of looked like they were throwing everything they could at these guys,” McCann said.

McCann said the summonses were written up by the Bellmawr Police Department, but the cases were later transferred to Winslow Township Municipal Court due to a conflict.

“Those charges hung over these guys’ heads for over four years,” McCann said.

On April 24, a judge in Winslow Township dismissed the charges but gave the prosecutors until this week to appeal.

“We didn’t get a lot of cooperation from Bellmawr with regard to discovery. The only thing we got with regard to discovery was the summonses,” McCann said Tuesday.

“You need the reports, you need a whole bunch of stuff. The judge in Winslow said Bellmawr didn’t provide their court with meaningful discovery to give to us,” McCann said. “She basically said that Bellmawr ignored the requests.”

When there was no appeal from officials in Bellmawr or the state, all charges were dropped with prejudice, meaning they cannot be filed again, according to McCann.

Bellmawr’s court clerk on Tuesday declined to comment on the case, and the court clerk in Winslow Township was not immediately available to comment.

A spokesperson for the state Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a call and an email seeking comment Tuesday morning.

In an interview during the pandemic, Smith accused the state of being “very selective” about which businesses could stay open and those that could not.

“Telling people that liquor stores are essential but places they can come to work on their physical and mental health is not — it’s just not adding up. So, we decided to take matters into our own hands,” Smith said at the time.

In May 2020, the business filed a federal lawsuit against the state, accusing Murphy, along with then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and other New Jersey officials of violating the owners’ constitutional rights by forcing them out of business indefinitely with no timeline for when they can reopen.

McCann on Tuesday said Atilis’ owners did not make money off gym memberships during the pandemic. The facility, for that period of time, became the campaign headquarters for Republican U.S Senate candidate Rik Mehta, who challenged Democrat Cory Booker for his U.S. Senate seat.

People entering Atilis were exercising their right to volunteer for Mehta’s candidacy. If they worked out while they were there, they were not charged a membership fee, McCann said.

“There was no income coming in but for the GoFundMe money they were raising to fight the state,” McCann said. The GoFundMe raised more than $530,000 for the gym owners’ cause.

On Sunday, Smith took to social media to claim victory in the gym’s fight against the state.

“The support we received locally, nationally, and internationally for our stand is something I will be forever grateful for,” Smith said.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ruth Ben-Ghiat at Lucid:

“I rise tonight with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able… These are not normal times in our nation. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent and we all must do more to stand against them.” This is how Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) began a speech which ultimately lasted more than 25 hours. At a time when our democracy faces an unprecedented crisis, Sen. Booker’s speech constituted a call to action in the name of unity and civil rights, justice and solidarity. It broke the filibuster record set by Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC), a man so racist that he spoke for a whole day and night to try and block the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and “keep people like me out of the Senate,” as Booker pointedly told Rachel Maddow. A filibuster seeks to obstruct the democratic act of deliberation around a specific piece of legislation. Sen. Booker’s speech was a resistance action. It called attention to the sober fact that all of our democratic procedures, norms, and institutions are imperiled. And it enacted and supported several key resistance strategies and principles.

This is a long game, and we must be resilient, seeing each individual action as part of a larger collective process.

The speech was an endurance test. Sen. Booker took no bathroom or rest breaks. He modeled in miniature the resilience shown by U.S. civil rights protesters on the streets and during the long years of struggle. And he reminded us that we will need to be tenacious and not easily discouraged in our efforts to turn back this assault on our rights and freedoms and restore the rule of law and democratic governance to America. “Moments like this require us to be more creative or more imaginative, or just more persistent and dogged and determined,” Booker said, his strength flagging as he entered the final few hours.

Lead with values and harness the power of emotions to bring others into the cause.

I was not surprised that it was Sen. Booker who stood up against the moral collapse we are witnessing. “This is not right or left. It is right or wrong. This is not a partisan moment. It is a moral moment,” he said. “Where do you stand?” Sen. Booker has often been ahead of the curve by appealing to Americans to take a stand and draw on the wisdom and practice of the civil rights era as they do that. During the first Trump administration, when he decided to run for president in the 2020 election, Sen. Booker made values-driven politics, love, and empathy part of his platform. In a 2018 Atlantic interview, he evoked Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s belief that ‘hate can’t drive out hate; only love can do that.’ Not only do I believe it is an important ideal, I also believe it is the right strategy, the right political strategy.” While Sen. Booker did not invoke love on this occasion, many journalists and commentators noted his displays of emotion, as though this was something unusual to see in a member of Congress. Here is my essay about the power of love and positive emotions as effective resistance strategy. Sen. Booker used the Senate chamber to make his speech and invoked his right to not yield the floor until he was ready. [...]

Use the tools and spaces you have now –all of them—because there is no guarantee that they will be available in the future. Be prepared to use those tools and spaces in new ways that might take you out of your comfort zone.

His fellow Democratic members of Congress have many instruments of protest available to them: voting NO on Republican-sponsored legislation, demanding quorum calls, denying confirmations, and much more. Yet many have acted timidly, avoiding such actions, some of them perhaps trying to honor a bipartisanship that has sadly all but disappeared as the Republican party has become an authoritarian entity. And ten Democrats were decidedly not using the spaces and tools at their disposal to fight autocracy when they signed on to the Republican motion to censure Rep. Al Green (D-TX) for protesting during President Donald Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress. [...]

Always present a united front to oppose an authoritarian aggressor. Solidarity is everything.

Booker’s extraordinary action brought forth a show of affection and respect from his colleagues in the chamber –Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) stayed with him throughout, and others frequently asked him questions to allow him a bit of vocal rest. That, too, was important for Americans to see. As Bloomberg columnist Nia-Malika Henderson observed, Sen. Booker was sending a strong message to his Senate colleagues as well as the Democratic base, both through his physical performance and through the content of his speech. Sen. Booker denounced the Trump administration’s actions in every sector and the destruction wrought by Elon Musk’s DOGE shock troops, but he did so in ways that made the awful outcomes of those actions and policies clear. Throughout, he shared testimonials from people who have already been adversely affected by the wrenching changes, whether farmers or educators and students or foreign nationals trying to enter the U.S. who ended up in ICE detention sites.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)’s record-breaking Senate filibuster was a clarion call for action against a wayward regime trampling on the Constitution.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt Davies

* * * *

Disrupting "business as usual"

April 1, 2025

Robert B. Hubbell

We have many positive developments to discuss, but I want to start with a weekly reminder:

Virtually all of the cuts and layoffs imposed through Doge violate the Constitution and federal law. We must not normalize them by simply saying, “Doge ordered 10,000 cuts in XYZ Agency.” Rather, we must say, “In violation of the Constitution, the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and congressional appropriations, Doge and Trump illegally terminated / cut etc.” Or some shorter variation of that statement.

If Congress were a functioning constitutional entity, Trump would have been impeached, convicted, and removed from office by today, April 1, 2025. The only reason that Trump is able to continue his unlawful rampage is because congressional Republicans are cowards and collaborators who refuse to hold him to account for his violation of the Constitution.

This is not normal, legal, or constitutional. Don’t allow the extraordinary assault on the Constitution to become “business as usual.” It is not.

As I write on Monday evening, Senator Cory Booker is conducting a one-person filibuster, holding the Senate floor as long as he is able. The point of Senator Booker’s disruption is to remind us that we cannot act as if a rolling coup is “business as usual.”

In our own way, each of must disrupt “business as usual” in order to save the rule of law.

So much losing for Trump—and, sadly, for the American people.

In a moment, I will review Trump's legal losses, which continue to mount by the hour. But it is important to recognize that Trump's legal losses are occurring in a domestic dumpster fire of self-inflicted pain and misery because of Trump's obsession with tariffs. Sadly, every American will share in the pain inflicted by Trump's lunatic economic policies.

The stock markets have had their worst quarter in three years. The last time this happened was when the combined effects of post-pandemic inflation and oil disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine battered the markets. See WSJ, U.S. Stocks Post Worst Quarter Since 2022 on Threat of Trade War.

Indeed, Trump's erratic tariff proclamations are making the European stock markets look like a safer alternative to the US stock market. Per the WSJ article,

“For the first time in a while, you can have a conversation about: Might European equities be the best place to be for the next two or three years?” said John Porter, chief investment officer at Newton Investment Management, which has been buying European stocks in many of its strategies in recent months. “You can have that conversation for reasons other than they’re cheap.”

In a truly breathtaking development, two US allies and major trading partners—Japan and South Korea—are coordinating with China on an economic response to Trump's Tariffs. See Business Times, China, Japan, South Korea Agree on Joint Response to U.S. Tariffs, Eye New Regional Trade Pact.

Trump is literally driving our allies into the welcoming embrace of our enemies!

And lest you accuse me of focusing on issues that most Americans do not care about, they are paying attention to the economy. Consumer confidence in the economy hit a twelve-year low—as in a “twelve year low”—in March. See CNBC, (3/25/2025) Consumer confidence in where the economy is headed hits 12-year low.

Per CNBC,

[T]he measure for future expectations told an even darker story, with the index tumbling 9.6 points to 65.2, the lowest reading in 12 years and well below the 80 level that is considered a signal for a recession ahead. The index measures respondents’ outlook for income, business and job prospects.

There is no joy or satisfaction in reporting on Trump's damage to the economy. But we should take confidence from the fact that political gravity still exists and that Trump will pay a heavy price for his unlawful rampage. The anger and anxiety you feel burning in your chest is shared by tens of millions of Americans—or more. Trump is sowing the seeds of his own political demise and the destruction of the GOP as a political party.

Legal landscape

The legal community continues to push back against the Vichy-style surrender by Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps. (Say their names to shame them until they realize that the cost of complicity is greater than the price of courage.).

A group of Georgetown Law students withdrew from a Skadden Arps-sponsored event hosted in its DC office to recruit students interested in energy law. See Above the Law, Georgetown Law Student Group Calls Skadden Cowards, Opts Out Of Recruitment Event.

Ouch! It has to hurt when a group of students looking for jobs at firms like Skadden can demonstrate more courage and dedication to the rule of law than one of the most powerful law firms in the US.

Charlie Sykes has penned an essay on his Substack blog that lets us know how he really feels about Skadden Arps and Paul Weiss. Sykes writes like Molly Ivins and swears like Lyndon Johnson, so don’t read his essay on your computer screen while at work. See Charlie Sykes, To the Contrary, The Quislings and Cowards of Big Law. (Note: Charlie uses strong language that might offend some readers.)

If you can’t quite find the words to capture your contempt for Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps, let Charlie Sykes do it for you. He writes of Skadden,

Actually, no “strong-arming,” was required at all, was it? You folded like a limp dish rag. You didn’t wait for an executive order. You didn’t join with your fellow lawyers at Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie, or WilmerHale in fighting back. You didn’t stand on any principle. You embraced your ignominy with enthusiasm. You pathetic Vichy flunkies. You tell your clients that you provide fearless advocacy, but in the pinch, you scattered like bloated, terrified rats, too afraid to litigate or fight, even when it was obvious you would win.

I digress, but I confess to vicarious pleasure in allowing Charlie Sykes to say things that I would not include in my PG-13 newsletter.

Trump administration continues to suffer setbacks in court.

US District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco blocked Trump's plan to end temporary protected status for 350,000 Venezuelans in the US. See AP News, Judge pauses Trump administration plans to end temporary legal protections for Venezuelans. (“Temporary Protected Status was set to expire April 7 after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reversed protections granted by the Biden administration.”)

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal refused to stay an order by US District Judge Settle that blocks implementation of the ban on transgender people in the military. That was a confusing sentence. The effect of the Ninth Circuit ruling is that transgender people can remain in the military—for now. See Reuters, Appeals court won't delay block on US military's transgender ban.

In a state law action, a federal judge blocked the implementation of an Alabama law that seeks to prosecute people who help Alabama residents obtain abortions outside of the state. See Chris Geidner in Law Dork (Substack), Breaking: Fed court rules Alabama AG's threatened abortion-fund prosecutions unconstitutional

New lawsuits challenging Trump executive order on elections

A broad coalition of Democrats has sued the Trump administration to block his executive order that purports to regulate how states run federal elections. See NYTimes, Democrats Sue to Block Elections Order They Call Unconstitutional. (Accessible to all.)

Per the NYTimes (whose headline deserves an award in the category of “Most Gutless Reporting in the Both-Sider Category of Cowardice):

The 70-page lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., accuses the president of vastly ovCdenialism, nowhere does it (nor could it) identify any legal authority he possesses to impose such sweeping changes upon how Americans vote,” the lawsuit says. “The reason why is clear: The president possesses no such authority.”

The lawsuit was filed by the Elias Law Group on behalf of the DNC, DSCC, DCCC, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries (among others). See Democracy Docket, Democrats Sue to Block Trump Bid to Control Elections.

A second lawsuit was filed by League Of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and others that raises many of the same issues. The complaint was filed by Norm Eisen of the State Democracy Defenders Fund.

The LULAC Complaint is here: LULAC v. Office of the President. I recommend reading the first few paragraphs to get a flavor of the constitutional issues being challenged in the lawsuit.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]