10 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

1. In an ironic twist, former DOJ attorney, and author of the infamous memos condoning torture, John Yoo argues that discredited and disbarred former attorney John Eastman just might be a crackpot.

   At Supreme Court, a Once-Fringe Birthright Citizenship Theory Takes the Spotlight

   For more than a century, most scholars and the courts have agreed that though the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution after the Civil War, it was not, in fact, all about slavery. Instead, courts have held that the amendment extended citizenship not just to the children of former slaves but also to babies born within the borders of the United States.

   The notion that the amendment might not do so was once considered an unorthodox theory, promoted by an obscure California law professor named John Eastman and his colleagues at the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank — the same professor who would later provide Mr. Trump with legal arguments he used to try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

   “They have been pushing it for decades,” said John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and a top lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. “It was thought to be a wacky idea that only political philosophers would buy. They’ve finally got a president who agrees.”

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   1. And we, the Colorado taxpayers, continue to fund the conservatives only Benson Center which enabled this loon. 

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      1. Colorado Times Recorder explained how much of the Benson Center's budget comes from tax dollars:

         Newsline’s investigation, however, overcame some of this secrecy. Documents related to the center’s reauthorization in 2017 indicate that around that time 1% of the center’s annual funding came from the university. In 2015, for example, the center’s total funding was $750,071, 1% of which is $7,500. The portion of the center’s budget that comes from the university has since increased.

         “Campus financial support is less than 2% of the center’s overall revenues since it last reorganized in 2018,” university spokesperson Andrew Sorensen wrote to Newsline this month in an email. The center’s total annual revenues in the four years from 2018 to 2021 averaged a little more than $1 million, suggesting that up to about $20,000 in public money a year goes to the Benson Center.

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         1. 1 dollar is too much. Republicans say we should burn 2SLGBTQIAx flags, Republicans say we should burn down Colorado… We give support and legitimacy to these loons and criminals who our own legal system has punished.

            Why don’t we treat them as any other educational organization would? Imagine if the schools business department appointed as dean a disbarred lawyer who perpetrated fraud on the customers and companies he used to be CEO of. Would that be acceptable?

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2. And this to clarify a few points

   

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3. Rafe Champion

   Telling us about the power situation down under

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4. In a world of Kid Rocks…be a Springsteen! 
   

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5. For one to lose their soul, they need to have one in the first place. 

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6. Oh man, Biden's got prostate cancer. Hoping for the best.

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   1. Best wishes, indeed, 2Jung, but the prognosis doesn’t sound encouraging:
      https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/former-president-joe-biden-diagnosed-prostate-cancer-rcna207571

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